Jenny thompson

Jenny Thompson is an American swimmer with 12 Olympic medals, 8 of them gold, the most ever won by any woman in the history of the Olympics.http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/th/jenny-beth-thompson-1.html Her record with the NCAA is nothing short of stellar. She has twice set world records.

During the 1990s, Thompson was the most dominant woman in swimming. In a sport that is usually lead by younger athletes, Thompson has continued to improve her times and learned to deal with the pressures of being a celebrity. She swam competitively into her thirties. http://sports.jrank.org/pages/4827/Thompson-Jenny.html

In 2000, Thompson was criticized for posing in Sports Illustrated with only her fists on her chest and American flag shorts. Sports Illustrated sold a lot of copies of that issue. Ms. Thompson's value on the athletic spokesperson circuit increased, and allowed her to afford medical school at Columbia.http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/cover/news/2000/08/14/unflagging/

In 2001, Thompson began studying at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. She came out of retirement and made the 2004 Olympics team. The games were in Athens, Greece that year, and she won two relay silver medals. She dealt with the challenges of being in medical school while training and competing.

Thompson is now a physician.

Thomson says she could swim before she could walk. Her mother, Margrid, was a single mother of four, but was determined to support he daughter. The family moved to Dover, New Hampshire when Thompson began swimming for the Seacoast Swimming Association at age 12. Her mother’s commute to her job was 40 miles.http://sports.jrank.org/pages/4827/Thompson-Jenny.html In 1987, Thomson became the youngest US gold medal winner for swimming at the Pan American Games. She was 14 at the time. She won her first world championship in 1991. She held the world record in the 50 m and 100 m freestyle when she participated in the Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, in 1992.

When she accepted a scholarship at Stanford University in 1992, Thompson wanted to swim, but was serious about earning her degree in human biology.http://www.gostanford.com/trads/stan-trads-pool.html She managed both with grace and composure.