Jenny Thompson

The Short List

• The most decorated American Olympian of all-time with 12 medals -- including a record eight gold -- from the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 Olympic Games
• Became the third female swimmer to ever qualify for four Olympic Games
• Owns 85 medals from international competition making her the most decorated swimmer in history (14 World Championships medals, 34 Pan Pacific Championship medals, 17 short course World Championship medals)
• Has earned 26 U.S. National titles and is a 15-time National Team member

Did You Know?

• Named one of the ‘Greatest 100 Female Athletes’ of the 20th Century by Sports Illustrated
• Olympic medals breakdown: 2004 – two silver, AR; 2000 – three gold, one bronze, two WR; 1996 – three gold; 1992 – two gold, one silver
• On Aug. 23, 1999, Thompson broke one of swimming's most revered standards – Mary T. Meagher's 100-meter butterfly 1981 world record. Thompson bettered Meagher's time of 57.93 seconds by .05. "It's a dream come true – I can't believe it, I'm so psyched”
• Trained for eight weeks in the ‘Jenny Thompson Pool’ prior to the 2002 Summer Nationals, qualified for the Pan Pacifics, where she won five medals and swam a lifetime best in the 50m freestyle
• 10-time USA Swimming All-Star (top-ranked Americans by event)
• 2000 Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year; 1999 USOC SportsWoman of the Year; 1993 and 1998 USA Swimming’s Swimmer of the Year
• Aspires professionally to become a doctor … graduated from Stanford University in 1995 with a human biology major ... began medical school at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in the fall of 2001
• Flew on a transplant airlift: “We started at Columbia Presbyterian, got on an ambulance, went to the airplane, flew to Virginia, picked up a lung, put it on ice, flew back and I watched them put it into a woman. From start to finish, it was amazing.”
• In her four years of competing for Stanford University, the school went undefeated … winning every single dual meet, conference championship and NCAA title
• Earned her first international gold medal at the 1987 Pan American Games (50m free)
• In her spare time, she volunteers with Swim Across America, an organization that raises money for cancer research and promotes an aquarium / ecology learning center to be built in New Hampshire

Jenny Thompson has more Olympic medals than any other American athlete, but her newest piece of neckwear is a stethoscope