Frank Thomas

Notable Sports Figures
Jenny Thompson
1973-
American swimmer
With eight Olympic gold medals, the most ever
awarded to an American woman, a stellar NCAA
record, and world record-setting times in two events,
Jenny Thompson was the most dominant American
woman in swimming during the 1990s. Her career has
been filled with many dramatic chapters, including
medal-winning performances in relay events at three
Olympic games and the failure to win an individual
Olympic gold medal. In a sport dominated by young
swimmers, Thompson has continued to improve her times
and conquered the distractions of becoming a celebrity.
Remarkably, Thompson is swimming into her thirties,
having set her sights on the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
She is also a medical student at Columbia University.
Thompson has said that she could swim before she
could walk. It was one of several interests that her mother
Margrid was determined to foster, despite the difficulties
of raising four children as a single parent. When her
daughter began swimming with the Seacoast Swimming
Association, the family moved to Dover, New Hampshire
so that Jenny could walk to practice. Margrid
began a forty-mile commute back to her job in Massachusetts.
In 1987 Jenny became the youngest U.S. gold
medal swimmer ever at age fourteen, having won the
50-meter freestyle at the Pan American Games.
Thompson quickly earned a reputation for being
strong and fast. She also became known for her competitiveness
and passion for the American flag, which she
wore on a bandana and other clothes. When she accepted
a scholarship at Stanford University, Thompson
wanted the experience to be about more than swimming
and earned a degree in human biology. Many of the best
American swimmers do not complete college in order to
reap financial opportunities. This makes Thompson a
standout in NCAA history with her nineteen individual
and relay titles, and participation on four consecutive
national championship teams.
Also during the early 1990s, Thompson broke a
world record for the 100-meter freestyle with a time of
54.48 at the 1992 Olympic trials. At the 1992 Olympics
in Barcelona, she won two gold medals: one in the 400meter
freestyle relay and one in the 400-meter medley
relay. Thompson placed second to China’s Zhuang Yong
in the 100-meter freestyle despite swimming 54.84,
amidst American suspicions that the Chinese team used
steroids. Possible steroid use also colored the experience
of having her 100-meter freestyle record broken by Le
Jingyi of China at the 1994 World Swimming Championships.
Just a month later, nine Chinese swimmers tested
positive for drugs.
Jenny Thompson
Thompson
Thompson broke her arm in May 1994 at a fraternity
pool party, but recovered quickly after having it surgically
repaired. She won two gold medals at the national
championships that August and now had the 1996
Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia in sight. But when Thompson
swam in the U.S. trials in Indianapolis, Indiana, she
did not have the mental composure to qualify in any individual
events. She agonized about performing well and
suffered sleepless nights. In the process, however, she
came to realize that gold medals and endorsement contracts
were not why she was there. What Thompson
loved was training, competing, and being part of a team.
Having been selected as a member of three U.S. relay
teams, Thompson’s discovery was reinforced at the
1996 Olympics. When she had to watch the 100-meter
freestyle from the stands, the U.S. coach and Thompson’s
coach at Stanford, Richard Quick, sent her a note
saying “Jenny, I love you very much. You’ll always be
my champion.” In the 400-meter freestyle relay, Thompson
swam with Amy Van Dyken and Angel Martino, two
of her greatest rivals, to win the gold medal. Her anchor
leg broke the Olympic record by .17 seconds. Thompson
also was part of the victorious 800-meter freestyle relay
team, which set another Olympic record, and earned a
third gold medal by swimming in the preliminaries of
the 400-meter medley relay.
Revitalized, Thompson won her first individual gold
at a major international event in 1998, when she won the
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