Olympic medalist Kristy Kowal to be inducted into Pennsylvania Hall of Fame alongside Joe Paterno

Olympic silver medalist Kristy Kowal will be inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame alongside a star-studded class that includes a pro hockey player, three NFL players and embattled former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.

Kowal starred in the pool for the University of Georgia, but originally hails from Reading, Pennsylvania. She’s one of the all-time great swimmers to come out of Pennsylvania, a state traditionally loaded with elite swimming talent.

A breaststroker, Kowal was among the world’s best in the late-1990s and early-2000s. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Kowal won the silver medal in the 200 breaststroke. Two years prior, she won the 100 breast at the FINA World Championships, becoming the United States’ first-ever female swimmer to win a world championship in the event.

Swimming for the Georgia Bulldogs, Kowal also tore up the NCAA during her career. She was a back-to-back winner of the NCAA’s Swimmer of the Year award (1999 and 2000), winning 8 NCAA titles. Probably her most notable accomplishment in short course yards was becoming the first American woman ever under a minute in the 100 breast, a feat she accomplished in 1998, going over a second-and-a-half faster than any other American in history before that point.

Nearly two decades later, Kowal is still among the top 20 all-time performers in the event – and more impressive is that her swim was done in the pre-dolphin kick era, before swimmers were allowed to include a downward dolphin kick in their underwater pullouts.

Kowal is already a member of the Pennsylvania Swimming Hall of Fame, and now joins the state’s all-sport Hall. Her 12-person class of inductees is highlighted by former football coach Joe Paterno, who is an interesting – and controversial – inclusion.

Paterno coached at Penn State for 46 seasons and holds the NCAA Division I record for most wins as a head coach at an astounding 409. But Paterno’s career ended in disgrace during the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal in which a long-time assistant to Paterno was accused of sexually assaulting children. There were accusations that Paterno knew about Sandusky’s conduct at some level but did not report what he knew to the proper authorities. The NCAA vacated 111 of Paterno’s wins, but later reversed that decision and reinstated the wins. Still, the whole scandal led to Paterno’s firing in 2011. Only a few months later, the legendary coach died of lung cancer.

He joins Kowal in the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2015, along with NFL players Eric Crabtree, Bill Koman and Neal Olkewicz and NHL player Bernie Parent. You can view the full class here, courtesy of Covers.com.