Beth Barr was a backstroker who won a silver medal in the medley relay at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Barr competed in both backstrokes, just missing the podium, with a fourth in the 200 back and fifth in the 100 back. Barr won a bronze medal in the 200 backstroke at the 1987 Pan Pacifics. A Pensacola, Florida native, she trained with PJC Aquatics in Pensacola. In 1989 Barr was in a horseback riding accident that shattered an arm, and although she made the effort, she never recovered sufficiently to make it back to international level swimming in time for the 1992 Olympic Trials. However, by 1996 it looked like she was in position to make another Olympic team until food poisoning and bacterial pneumonia shortly before the Trials ended those hopes.
After her swimming career ended Barr moved to Washington, DC, where she worked on Capitol Hill for a small business lobby. After marriage, she later settled in Phoenix, Arizona where she started Barracuda Swim Works, a company that offered swimming instruction to triathletes, masters swimmers and beginning adult swimmers. After a divorce, she and her children moved to Pensacola, Florida where she worked in public affairs and public relations.
United States