Saturday, April 30, 2022

The Beauty of Sport: Part Six: Allison Wagner

Allison Wagner is a champion American swimmer from the 1990s.


A native of Gainesville, Florida, Ms. Wagner would attend the University of Florida, which is conveniently located in her hometown, and become a star of the university's swim team.  She first distinguished herself in international competition while still in high school, however, starting at the 1993 Pan Pacific Championships in Kobe, Japan, winning the gold medal in the 200-meter medley swim race and the  silver medal in the 400-meter medley.  She repeated those achievements at the 1993 World Championships in he short-course (25-meter-length pool lap) versions of those events later that year at the World Championships in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.  In the 200-meter medley, she set a world record (2:07.79 minutes) that would stand for fifteen years.  

Back in the long-course (50-meter-lgneth pool), Ms. Wagner took silver at the 1994 World Championships in Rome in both the 200-meter 400-meter medleys and was named American Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World magazine.  Shortly after her nineteenth birthday, she competed in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but she only won the silver in the 400-meter medley.  Since many of the swimmers who defeated her for the gold in both Olympic and World Championships competition were suspected of steroid use, Ms. Wagner suspects that she should have been the rightful winner in those races.

Be that as it may, Ms. Wagner retired from competitive swimming in 2000 and became an artist.  She remains active the Olympic movement.

That's if of my sixth series of beautiful athletes.  A new A-Z round is coming up soon. 

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