A champion remembered.

To those who knew her, that’s the legacy Weissport native Betty Mullen Brey left behind not only as a world-class swimmer, but also as a first-rate person.In honor of her laundry list of accomplishments, a bronze statue of Mullen Brey will be unveiled at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Weissport Park.The statue is of Mullen Brey on the starting blocks getting ready to dive into competition, and it will have a plaque on it titled “Road to the Olympics.”It will be located on Franklin Street at the corner of Franklin and Park streets in the southwest corner of the park.The honoreeMullen Brey was born to Charles and Evadna Mullen in Weissport in 1931.By the age of 14, she began to train in Graver’s Swimming Pool in Lehighton, and later at the YMCA in Allentown, as well as the Women’s Association of New York.She eventually qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials, and though she didn’t make the games in 1948, that only served to fuel her fire.Upon graduating from Lehighton High School, Mullen Brey went on to study at Purdue University, where she continued to swim and improve on her times.In 1951, she competed in the Pan American Games in Argentina, where she earned a gold medal as a member of the 400-meter freestyle relay team, and an individual silver medal in the 200-meter freestyle.Mullen Brey graduated from Purdue in 1953, at which time she entered the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant.While stationed at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., she once again found herself swimming competitively, and went on to earn a gold and silver medal in the finals of the 1955 Pan An Games.A three-time National AAU titlist, Mullen Brey was a member of a group of swimmers who traveled the world on the State Department Good Will Tour and introduced the butterfly stroke and dolphin kick in Finland, Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Greece and Germany before the 1956 Olympics.She married Paul Brey of Lehighton, and took a job as a physical education teacher while she trained for the 1956 Olympic Team. Mullen Brey made the team and swam in the preliminary heats for the eventual silver medal-winning team. However, only four of the six swimmers swam in the finals, and due to the rules at the time, she didn’t receive a medal.She and Paul had three children, Brenda, Michael and Shane. Michael is the head coach of the Notre Dame men’s basketball team, a position he has held since 2000.In addition to raising her family and coaching the swim team at George Washington University, Betty and Paul ran the program and coached the swim team in the summer for the Columbia Country Club in Washington, D.C., for 25 years.Mullen Brey competed in the Masters of the U.S. Senior Olympics into her 80s, according to her brother, Tom Mullen, who resides in Breinigsville.“She always brought home medals for first, second and third,” Tom said.Her legacyMullen Brey died March 21, 2015, in Florida, at the age of 83.A member of the alumni relations board of

U.S.A. Swimming, Mullen Brey was inducted into the Purdue University Sports Hall of Fame, and along with her husband and two of her brothers and a brother-in-law, into the Carbon County Sports Hall of Fame, Tom said. She was also honored as a graduate of distinction by the Lehighton Education and Athletic Foundation, he said.Weissport resident Dr. Keith “Jake” Boyer, who will serve as master of ceremonies for the program, said it cannot be understated the impact Mullen Brey has had on the history of Weissport.“I’m looking forward to the event honoring one of our hometown Olympians, and our hometown hero,” Boyer said. “I think it’s a very prestigious event in the history of Weissport.”Tom said his sister was always a “very positive person,” whose definition of happiness was, “Something to have, someone to love, and something to hope for.”“She had three major goals: become an Olympic swimmer, marry her high school sweetheart, and to raise a family of three children,” he said. “She considered it a life truly well-lived.”