4x Olympic gold medalist and 4x Olympian Allison Schmitt was the commencement speaker at Georgia’s undergraduate graduation last night.
Schmitt discussed numerous topics including:
- Her time at Georgia
- Coming of 2012 London and missing 2013 Worlds
- Graduating and having a different post-grad life
- Finding her “why” and embracing the journey
Schmitt’s speech lasts about 17 minutes spanning from the 48 minute mark to the 1:05 mark.
Schmitt attended Georgia from 2008-2013 and graduated in 2013 with a degree in psychology. She took an Olympic Redshirt season to prepare for the 2012 London Olympics before her senior season.
In London, Schmitt won individual gold in the 200 freestyle and silver in the 400 freestyle. Her LCM 200 freestyle time of a 1:53.61 remains the American Record to this day. She also helped the US to gold in the 4×200 free relay as well as in the women’s 4×100 medley relay.
After the London Olympics, Schmitt returned to Georgia for her senior season. As a senior in the spring of 2013, Schmitt won the 200 freestyle NCAA title and helped the team’s 400 free and 800 free relays to NCAA titles as well. The Georgia women went on to win the NCAA team title in 2013. Schmitt won the Honda Sports Award for the sport during her senior year.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Schmitt helped the US women to gold in the 4×200 free relay as well as silver in the 4×100 free relay. She also was a team captain in Rio. She also qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, earning team captain honors once again. In Tokyo, she helped the US to silver in the 4×200 free relay and bronze in the 4×100 free relay.
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A DGD. An absolute role model for many and many more to come. Go dawgs, Allison!
Her 200 free Olympic win is one of my favorite races to watch. A DGD!!!!
Agreed! Truly a dominant win. She’s a class act.
Such a shame she missed out on holding the WR for 9 years due to the farce that was the super suit era.
She had it in our hearts 🙂
A legend!