Thursday, August 16, 2012

Dana Vollmer: Olympic Gold Medalist

Dana Vollmer by jdlasica
Dana Vollmer, a photo by jdlasica on Flickr.

The picture shows American swimmer Dana Vollmer at the 2012 Santa Clara Grand Prix, photo by JD Lasica.

The 24-year-old American swimmer Dana Vollmer is an Olympic gold medalist who set a world record at the Athens Summer Olympics (2004) winning the gold medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay event along with her teammates of the United States team. In 2012 Dana Vollmer set the world record winning the gold medal in 100m butterfly event, 4x200m freestyle relay and in 4x100m medley relay.

Her life and achievements are of special interest to those who undergo treatments for heart conditions and also those who either take care of such people or professionals working for heart and healthcare.

Though Dana Vollmer had to undergo a heart surgery in 2003 to correct supraventricular tachycardia that fastens pulse rate to up to 240 beats per minute, she valiantly went ahead with her training and took part in major international swimming competitions winning several coveted medals. Reportedly, she keeps a defibrillator by the swimming pool side wherever she swims to take care of any emergency heart conditions.

Ye Shiwen, Olympics Gold Medalist

Ye Shiwen, the 16-year-old Chinese swimmer from Zhejiang, made much more news during the 2012 Summer Olympics for wrong reasons than her incredible achievements of winning gold medals (esp. 200 m and 400 m individual medley) and her world record in the Women's 400m Individual Medley. It was a moment to celebrate when she broke the record set by Stephanie Rice in the 2008 Summer Olympics and a further 3 seconds reduced when she finished with the stopwatch clicking 4:28.43.