Olympic Gold Medalist Crissy Perham Donates Kidney to Missy Franklin’s Dad

When it was revealed in January via Facebook that Missy Franklin’s dad, Dick, was in desperate need of a kidney donor, a fellow Olympic gold medalist answered the “Hail Mary” request. 

Crissy Perham, a two-time gold medalist at the 1992 Olympics and two-time NCAA champion at Arizona (then under the name Crissy Ahmann), turned out to be the only match after months of tests and medical examinations. On Wednesday, she underwent a successful kidney transplant with Dick in a Denver hospital. 

Their recovery has been smooth so far. By Thursday, Perham could eat real food again, and by Friday, the 52-year-old was discharged from the hospital. Before leaving, she witnessed Dick in good spirits already eating a burrito. 

“All of his bloodwork, all of his urine output, all of his measures — he’s killing it,” Perham said of Dick’s recovery. “It’s going really, really well for him. Apparently, they named the third kidney ‘Olympia.’”

Dick’s wife, D.A., called Perham his “guardian angel.”

“I guess the news is out now,” Dick wrote Friday on Facebook. “I am truly humbled by this wonderful person who has saved my life.”

Although Perham didn’t meet Dick in person until her kidney was inside his body, she felt familiar with the Franklins because she had been watching Missy swim since she qualified for the Olympic Trials at age 12. 

“She is an amazing athlete and an amazing person,” Perham said of Missy. “We remember when she made the Olympic Trial cuts when she was 12, like that’s just crazy talent. We’ve been listening to stories of Missy’s greatness for a long time and just what a unique situation with the athlete she was.”

Perham boasts an impressive resume, too, swimming the butterfly leg on the world-record-setting 4:02.54 in the 4×100 medley relay team at the 1992 Olympics. She also earned a gold medal from competing in the heats of the 4×100 freestyle relay and a silver individually in the 100 fly (58.74). Her son, Ryan, is a junior swimmer at Arizona.

And it just so happened that Perham met every standard required for the procedure. 

“There’s lots of preliminary stuff,” Perham said. “For example, I don’t have any chronic health problems, we don’t have kidney disease, we don’t have diabetes in my family. So that makes me a good candidate. Blood type is really important, and there are other factors within blood type that will make you more compatible — make it less likely that Dick’s body will reject my organ. It’s a really long, complicated process, but I think it’s the best for everybody.”

Perham added that one positive side effect of the extensive testing is that she’s now sure she doesn’t have cancer. 

At first, she wanted to remain anonymous about her role in the operation, or maybe keep it between herself and the Franklins. But as Perham went through the process, she realized it was important to demystify live-donor kidney transplants and spread awareness about the viability of the procedure. 

“The more we spoke, the more Dick and I felt strongly about talking about living donation and taking some of the scariness away from it,” said Perham, who had already walked a mile and a half on Saturday by the time of her afternoon interview. “Because Missy is such a familiar name and face in the sports world, we can talk about living kidney donation and it might make a difference for someone else. That’s going to be the legacy of this, I think.”