In July and August 1996, the world sent its finest athletes to Atlanta. Some athletes came as familiar names from familiar nations. Others had toiled in obscurity. Each came proudly to Atlanta, and Atlanta received them in the same manner. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of those Summer Games, the AJC offers 20 memorable athletes and performances.
The 15th in the series: Amy Van Dyken won four swimming golds, but today the pool means something a lot different.
Amy Van Dyken remembers making the turn in the finals of the 100 butterfly in the Summer Olympics 20 years ago in Atlanta.
Her shoulders and arms churning like pistons, her legs cutting through the water like a boat motor, Van Dyken could hear the noise in the natatorium growing louder.
And then, something that he says she has never experienced before or after, she could feel the vibrations of that deafening noise underwater.
Chills.
“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, someone is swimming fast,’” she said. “‘I hope it’s someone on our team.’”
It was.
Van Dyken touched the wall first, part of her four gold medals — the 100 butterfly, 50-meter freestyle, 4x100-meter freestyle and 4x100-meter medley — that cemented her status as the most successful American woman in an Olympics to that point.
Her athletic ability, determination, and results not only made her one of the more quoted athletes at the Atlanta Games, but with a personality that still makes people smiles, she was already one of the most quotable, which she still is.
She was funny, dropping President Bill Clinton into quotes: “Every time you win a gold medal, he calls. We’ve talked four times. I feel like we’re personal friends. Not really.”
She was confident, slamming those who picked on her in high school: “This is for all the nerds out there. I won’t parade (the medals) in the mall when I see them, but they’ll know that I have them — and that’s fine.”
She was intimidating, talking about trying to psych out an opponent before a swim by giving her a death-stare in the ready room: “I just got across from her. I wanted to stick out my tongue at her.”
She won two more medals at the Summer Games in Sydney in 2000, and then turned those fast-twitch muscles and brain cells into a career as a national radio talk-show co-host and sideline reporter, among other things.
Even after 20 years, Van Dyken said she remembers so many things about her Atlanta experience.
One of her favorite memories, one that she said summed up spirit of both the Olympics and Southern hospitality, occurred when she was trying one night to make it from the Olympic Village to a hotel for a TV shoot with Dan O’Brien and Michael Johnson.
Pressed for time and knowing it would take too long to walk, she looked for a solution.
A nearby volunteer recognized Van Dyken and offered to chauffer her through Atlanta in a golf cart.
Off they went until he dropped her off at the valet station.
“That summed up the entire games, how well everyone took care of everyone,” she said.
Van Dyken’s life has taken a dramatic turn since the Olympics. She was paralyzed from the waist down on June 6, 2014 in an ATV accident in Show Low, Ariz., in which she flew over a curb and into a gulley. Her husband, former Denver Broncos punter Tom Rouen, found her. She was diagnosed at a local hospital with a fracture between two vertebrae. After surgery, she went through months of physical therapy, including swimming, in Denver.
Though her fame came from the pool, she told Oprah Winfrey earlier this year that it’s no longer her sanctuary.
“I feel paralyzed there,” she said. “I don’t feel paralyzed any other time. I know I have a disability. I get really good parking, but other than that, it’s just getting into this pool that makes me feel disabled.”
Van Dyken does cherish the memories made in the pool, some specifically from Atlanta.
She said swimming in her country, with crowds cheering for her, combined with winning the four gold medals gave her a confidence that she had never before experienced.
She made friends such as Amanda Beard, with whom she remains close today.
The tangible, of course, is the four gold medals, a mark that no American female has broken.
Van Dyken thinks that Katie Ledecky could be the one to break her mark this summer in Rio de Janeiro.
No, Van Dyken won’t mind. She said she’s only mad that she won’t be in Brazil to watch.
“Records are made to be broken,” she said. “It’s been 20 years. It’s about time. I would be psyched for that.”
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