Dana Vollmer electrified the London Olympics with her performance in the 100 meter butterfly finals. She took home the gold medal and became the first woman to break 56 seconds in that race, and her world record mark of 55.98 still stands as the fastest ever. Vollmer was also on two victorious relays: the 400 medley relay (which set a WR, too) and the 800 free relay, where she swam the 2nd leg.
Vollmer has yet to race in almost two years; her last competition was the 2013 Barcelona World Championships, and following that, she announced in October of 2014 that she was expecting her first child. There was much speculation that she had hung up her goggles, though she did tell Rowdy Gaines of Universal Sports that she actually never left the sport.
“I hated when I saw the rumors that I actually did retire; I never did retire. I always wanted to leave it open for myself and I want to get back into shape. It’s one of those things that if I can get back into shape, maybe I’ll see what I can go in the pool.”
This weekend, we could see the world record holder return to the pool. A quick look at the LA Invite psych sheets shows that Vollmer is entered to swim the 100 meter butterfly as the 23rd seed with a 1:02.48 entry time.
The last time she swam this race, she won the bronze medal at the 2013 Barcelona World Championships with a time of 57.24. Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden won that title in 56.53, while Australia’s Alicia Coutts (56.97) took silver. Since 2011, according to the SWIMS database, her slowest 100m butterfly was a 59.99 from the 2013 Arena Grand Prix at Mesa.
In Vollmer’s above quote, of course, she does say that if she can get back in shape, she’ll see what happens. According to an article on NBC Sports, which was published June 21st of this year, Vollmer had been training for roughly a month and a half. That means that as of now, she’s been practicing for about two months.
We won’t be seeing Vollmer at any international championships this summer, however the 2012 gold medalist might make waves at the LA Invite this weekend in her sole event of the meet. While Vollmer hasn’t been in the pool, Sjostrom has been inching nearer and nearer to Vollmer’s world record. Just a few weeks ago, Sjostrom laid down the hammer with a 56.04 at the 2015 Sette Colli Trophy in Rome. If Vollmer wants to crack the world’s top 25, she must out-pace a 58.49, which is the time swum by three different swimmers, Russia’s Anna Polyakova, China’s Zhou Yilin, and Japan’s Rikako Ikee.
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go bears! she’s awesome.
That’s good news indeed. All american girl Dana Vollmer back on the blocks. I’m looking forward to the next weekend 🙂
I’ve no idea about what we can expect from such a comeback.
Anyway, it’s cool to see such a great champion back in the water. Just for fun or more seriously.
I’m looking at the photo above from London 2012 and I tell myself: “What a dreamteam it was!”
Rebecca, please, try as well. You’re still young. At least just to see. Breaststroke misses you. And I miss Miss Soni. She was fun to watch swim.
dream team:
the best backstroker
the best breaststroker
the best butterflyer
and the best 200 free swimmer
In addition to swimming on the prelim 800 relay, Dana swam the 2nd leg of the Gold Medal winning finals relay.
Overlooked that, thanks! It’s fixed.
Good luck to Dana – she stayed out of the spotlight most of her career and probably deserves more credit for her accomplishments than is given in the swimming world. That said, I hope she gets her feel back for the water and contributes to our fly depth.
On a different note, the toughest challenge for most U.S. female swimmers who are trying to get endorsement deals is finding their own niche amongst the Franklin, Coughlin and eventually Ledecky/Manuel arena. Once these 2 college swimmers compete professionally, a lot of the endorsement $ might be dried up which puts a strain on other female swimmers if their livelihood depends on these deals.
Sarah sjostrom can go faster than that
100FREE, if you look at Dana’s heat, semi final, and final finish she really dove under for a long finish. She also did it in the relay and at the 2013 world championships in the heats, semi, and finals. That is just her finish style I guess. I think she could’ve been 55.65
Any guesses on what the current WR would be if Vollmer had had a better finish in London?
I would say around 55.75