Like her brothers and sisters, Diana Munz was taught not to fear the water at an early age. Her parents owned a boat and it was important to them for all their children to learn to swim.
For Munz, a Chagrin Falls native, staying in the water became a passion and led her down the Olympic lane.
Beginnings of an Athlete
While other sports are something she enjoyed, swimming was something that stuck out to her. It wasn’t just the water, but also the competitive nature of the sport.
“That is the awesome part of swimming, you are in your lane and there is a certain feeling that is yours and you’re in control,” she says.
As Munz kept competing, she gradually began to get faster and achieve more, from qualifying for the junior nationals to competing in the Olympic trials when she was 13.
“It was a big eye opener,” she says. “There were a lot of things I learned and I grew up really quickly.”
Munz went back four years later to the trials, made the Olympic Team in 2000 and headed to Sydney, Australia.
There she won gold as a member of an 800-meter freestyle relay team and won silver for an individual 400-meter freestyle event.
While winning the gold was exciting, Munz says the silver holds even more meaning to her.
“This was my first event at the Olympics and an individual event for me,” she says. “It was achieving everything I ever dreamed — representing the U.S. traveling to other countries. (That’s) a pretty overwhelming feeling and it’s one of the biggest things I recognized.”
Munz didn’t stop there, as she went on to compete and win a bronze in the 800-meter freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics, along with winning national titles.
While she didn’t officially retire from swimming, she made some tough choices.
“I had no idea that it was the hardest thing for any athlete, deciding to retire,” she says. “I spent my entire life swimming; it was my job. I knew that I wanted to be in the sports world. It was a hard transition.”
Home Equals Heart
Munz graduated from John Carroll University in University Heights where she met her husband, Palmer DePetro. It wasn’t too long after her break from competitive swimming that the couple began to think about starting a family.
Munz says that being a mom definitely is harder than winning gold, as raising her two girls (Sydney, 7, whose name came straight from Munz’s first Olympic trip — she says her daughter is finally coming around to her namesake — and Reagan, 3) is something you can’t redo.
“Having two girls is really empowering,” she says. “I want them to represent themselves and who they are. How they act, dress and behave is really important.”
Munz works part-time as the senior associate director of aquatics at the Spire Institute in Geneva and will help with Olympic Zone this summer on WKYC Channel 3 to talk about the Rio de Janeiro 2016 games in August.
While she still likes being poolside, she doesn’t get into the water much and enjoys other exercise, such as yoga, videos at home or running.
However, swimming is very important to her and so is water safety. She takes the girls to Goldfish Swim School and is involved in helping with some of their programs.
“Swimming is a life lesson,” she says. “We live by Lake Erie and every kid should know how to swim. You need to learn how to be safe around the water.”
Another big part of her life is someone who is not there — her father, who died of diabetes complications in 2010.
He was a very active world champion figure skater and when he stopped skating, he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, she says, adding he struggled for a long time with it.
Munz and her father would participate in the Swim for Diabetes annual fundraising event from the Diabetes Partnership of Cleveland.
“He was such a great parent and wanted to be at all my swim meets. He was always striving to be that parent (who) does everything, (who) can’t have sick days,” Munz says, adding that she tries to make a point to slow down and take care of her body. “As a parent, you have to follow what your body needs.”
For now, she’s focusing on her family as she balances between work and home life in Chagrin Falls, a town she loves and where her family is only a mile away.
“It’s hard to balance,” she says. “It’s all about balancing your time. For me, as a parent, you love your children unconditionally. I want my kids to be proud and truly believe in themselves.”
When asked if her daughters swim, she says they do, but Munz doesn’t see the competitive streak (yet).
For more info about Munz, visit Facebook.com/Diana Munz DePetro
