[7][1] She won a gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke and a silver in the medley relay in the summer of her High School Junior year at the U.S. Olympic festival in Oklahoma.

[8] Helping Peddie School win the team championship at the Eastern Interscholastic Championships at LaSalle University in February, 1990, she placed first in the 100 backstroke with a highly improved 55.63, breaking the national prep record, and placed first in the 400 freestyle relay, second in the 200-yard medley relay, and first in the 200 Individual Medley with a meet record time of 2:02.81.

[1] She attended and swam for the University of Texas, under Hall of Fame Coach Mark Schubert, graduating in 1994.

[13] She continued to compete internationally for the U.S. team from 1993-2000, taking two golds at the Pan Pacific Championships, in the 200 backstroke in 1993 and the medley relay in 1999.

[14][15] After qualifying in the trials, Bedford represented the United States at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Swimming the backstroke leg, she was a member of the U.S. team that won the Olympic gold medal in the women's 4×100-meter medley relay and set a new world record of 3:58.30 in the event final.

Her record-setting teammates included Megan Quann (breaststroke), Jenny Thompson (butterfly), and Dara Torres (freestyle).

Her official statement of retirement to the press came at the end of the World Cup short-course swimming meet in January, 2001 in Paris.

[7] Due to their overall performances in 1989 and 1990, Swimming World Magazine named the Peddie girls the National High School Champions.