Swimming Special Report: Jenny Thompson, a legendary swimmmer
Jennifer Beth Thompson, the former American Olympian swimmer was born on the 26th of February 1973. She is one of the most fancied swimmers, who has participated in a total of 4 Olympic Games. These include the 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 Summer
Olympics. The legendary swimmer specializes in butterfly and freestyle strokes and is the winner of 12 Olympic medals out of which eight are gold.
Jennifer, a native of Massachusetts is known to have started swimming at the age of 7 at a summer country club known as the Cedardale in her home town. She swam at this club for 5 years under the training of Coach Nancy Pearson Brennan. At the age of 12,
she started swimming under the guidance of Amy and Mike Parratto for Seacoast Swimming Association.
She made her international debut in the year 1987, while she was just 14 years old. She finished third on the 50 metre freestyle event at the Pan American Games. The first World Championships was won by her in the year 1991 in the 4 into 100 metre freestyle
relay event. Jenny then went on to set world records in the 50 metre and 100 metre freestyle events when she competed in the 1992 Olympics that were held in Barcelona, Spain.
Jenny attended the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and received a medical degree in the year 2006. As the moment, she is working as an aesthesiologist at the Bringham Women’s Hospital situated in Boston.
1992 Olympics are recorded as the most significant mega event of Jenny’s career. This is because she participated in these Olympics when her athletic career was at its peak. She was the second place finisher in the 100 metre freestyle event at the Olympics.
As a part of the 4 into 100 metre freestyle relay and the 4 into 100 metre medley relay, she won two gold medals.
Thompson was ranked amongst the top swimmers of America, while she still continued her athletic career as a part of US as well as the Stanford University team. Thompson continued was also considered to be the most dominant swimmer in NCAA history, since
she was adorned with 19 individual and relay NCAA titles in 1996. However, Thompson could not qualify for any individual meet for the 1996 Summer Olympics. She did however compete in the 4 into 100 metre freestyle, 4 into 100 metre medley and 4 into 200 metre
freestyle events at the Olympics.
By the end of 1999, Thompson has achieved eight more world championships titles. Then at the 2000 Summer Olympics that were held in Sydney, she bagged a bronze medal in the 100 metre freestyle and finished fifth in the 100 metre butterfly. She then went
on to defend her titles in the 4 into 100 metre freestyle relay and 4 into 200 metre freestyle relay events.
After the 2000 season, it was known that the legendary swimmer has retired from the sport. She was the winner of 10 Olympic medals out of which 8 were gold, at that time. Besides this, she was also the winner of 12 gold medals at the World Championships.
Jenny started studying at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2001, when she moved to New York. While still a student of the aforementioned school, she took part in the 2002 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships that took place in Yokohama,
Japan. She won five medals in two days of competitions at the event and won the 50 metre freestyle event. Meanwhile, at the 2003 World Championships, she once again won five medals out of which two were gold.
Thompson was the oldest athlete of the 2004 US Swimming and Diving team when she participated in the Athens Olympics 2004. She was made the anchor member of the 400 metre freestyle relay event. She won a silver medal in this event and also set a national
record of 3 minutes and 36.39 seconds. Another silver medal was won by her in the 4 into 100 metre medley relay meet.
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