SwimmingWorldMagazine.com is reporting that former Olympic gold medalist Tom Dolan is recovering from a very severe concussion. The injury supposedly occurred as the result of an undisclosed accident outside of a friend’s house in Gaithersburg, Virginia on July 2nd.
No further details were available about the exact nature of the accident, but Dolan spent a week in the ICU while recovering, and is spending another week in isolated recovery while his brain heals.
Dolan, who was a part of the great IM tradition at the University of Michigan, won the gold medal in the 400 IM at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, and the silver at the 2000 games in the 200m distance. Dolan first broke the 400 IM world record in 1994, just 4 days shy of his 19th birthday. He then held the 400 IM record of 4:12.30 (and later 4:11.76 at the 2000 Olympics) for the next 2896 days, or nearly 8 years, until another teenager, by the name of Michael Phelps came along and broke it. This is the longest that any one person has held the mark.
Coincidentally, Phelps is just a week short of tying Dolan’s record. On July 19, 2010, Phelps will have held the 400 IM record for the same 2896 days.
So far, SwimmingWorld is the only news outlet reporting this story, but if more details become available, we’ll be sure to pass them along. We wish Tom the best of luck in his recovery.