5-time Olympic gold medalist and former 100 meter fly World Record holder Dana Vollmer has announced that next week’s Pro Swim Series stop in Austin, Texas will be her official return-to-competition meet. Her first race back comes roughly 6 months after giving birth to Ryker Alexander Grant, her 2nd child with husband Andy.
Vollmer’s last competitive race was in April of 2017 at the Arena Pro Swim Mesa, where she raced at 26 weeks pregnant (she swam a 27.59).
After giving birth to her first child, Arlen, in March of 2015, Vollmer returned in just 4 months for the Los Angeles Invite. A year after that, she came away with 3 Olympic medals in Rio – gold on the 400 medley relay, silver on the 400 free relay, and bronze in the 100 fly.
Vollmer says that she’ll swim the 50 free and 50 fly in Austin (psych sheets have not yet been released). In a Tweet announcing her return, Vollmer says that she was “feeling speedy.” Both of her races will be swum on Saturday, January 13th as part of the new series format that will have standard event lineups on Thursday/Friday, with a more unique
Feeling speedy so I'm heading to the #tyrproseries competition in Austin to race the 50 fly & 50 free!! Race day Jan 13th ?? @TYRSport pic.twitter.com/hjbtDEHuau
— Dana Vollmer (@danavollmer) January 3, 2018
In spite of being out of competition for 8 months, Vollmer’s fellow Olympian Jason Lezak still drafted her as part of the new team-style U.S. Swim Squads Fantasy Draft, meaning that she will be eligible to score points for her team. Other members of Lezak’s team include Nathan Adrian, Lia Neal, Kathleen Baker, and Mallory Comerford – as well as a breaststroke-heavy trio of Josh Prenot, Kevin Cordes, and Cody Miller (perhaps setting up for a trade later on to another team?).
Vollmer’s suit sponsor, TYR, is the new title sponsor of the Pro Swim Series, taking over for Arena – last year’s sponsor.
Proud of you…proud of our granddaughter who wants to swim for A&M. All of you need more recognition.
if she hangs on for another 12-16 years she could get the pleasure of racing her own kid at a trials (I have seen that here in Canada… although they didn’t race the same races unfortunately. dad qualified sprint FR and she is an IM’er)
who? please tell us.
I would be interested to know if having children diminishes athletic performance in females with all the hormonal/physical changes they go through
I guess we’ll get data on that when Dana swims a few races.
How much could a wood chuck chuck if would chuck could chuck wood?
A wood chuck would chuck all the wood that a wood chuck could chuck if a wood chuck could chuck would.
heavier reps, fewer chucks when you get into your 30s.
She will go lifetime best times because women athletes peak in their mid 30s, very few of them just ever hanging around in Athletics to get to that point. Remember Dara Torres?
Dara Torres is an outlier not the rule. I hope men and women keep staying in sport til mid 30s but the sport is very taxing and alot of people cant stay elite at that age
Not just that, but most sports arent lucrative enough for athletes to stay in unless they’re at the very top of the tree. The reality of life hits 90% of athletes before they reach mid 30s – The lucky few can continue.
I’m a big Dana Vollmer fan, and wish her continued success.
I’m sure Dana is wise enough to take a much different approach to extend her career than Dara Torres did.
I think it’s unfortunate that swimming has developed an attitude that somehow discounts swimmers as they get older or even if they are not achieving PB times each time they race.
We certainly don’t do the same to other sports, where stars past their prime playing years are still earning and helping win games.
If a 30 year old swimmer can still outswim someone 10 years thier junior, they have every right to keep taking the spot on that Olympic team or on the podium. No such thing as stepping aside to let others have a chance…others need to take that spot by swimming faster.
Everything you said is correct. But what if the 30 year old swimmer cannot outswim those who are ten years younger. Should this swimmer retire from the competition at top level? Your analogy with another team sports isn’t appropriate, I think. They still do it for living and they are staying active while someone pays them. It is not the case with swimming. In order to earn money one has to outswim your opponent. I am still not sure about Dana’s motivation. If it is just for money seeking for endorsement then it is fine with me. She can follow Hosszu’s example finding plenty of paid competitions with a very weak field. But in this case I wouldn’t get much… Read more »
What makes Dara Torres’ 5 Olympics even more remarkable is that she sat out two non-consecutive games
This is not generally true.
It would be interesting to hear her thoughts about what pushes her to do so. She is 30 yo. A lot of great and very great swimmers left competitive sport at much younger age. Left either because they didn’t have any more satisfaction of competition or found something else as much important to do with their lives. Even if she gets to the level of her impressive personal bests it isn’t enough anymore.
I remember time when Rudy was a hero to my children, but with the years their opinion about him changed to the diametrically opposite.
I think when you get to be that age in swimming, it’s less about the times, and more about the fun of racing. That’s the core of the sport. If you don’t have fun, don’t do it.
I hear what you are saying, but I think she will be concerned with times.tbh. She is a gold medalist and was a world record holder.
Why are you not asking the same question about Nathan Adrian and Ryan Lochte?
Wow! This came as a shock!
How? She’s been posting that she’s been training and staying in the water.
I dont follow her on social media. Maybe you do so you don’t have to start hating right after I publish a comment.
he’s not “hating”…. simply stating that she never really left and is very public about it.
Unless someone closely follows them on social media, swimmers don’t exactly get headlines.
well u follow enough that ur reading swimswam
I assume you replied to the wrong person… I am aware of Dana and her second comeback. interesting fact…. in her leadup to the 2016 Olympics after having her first kid she was only doing singles for most of the year building up to that olympiad.
Was replying to Liam. My bad
I found out from swimswam (not social media and not this specific article) FYI
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She is awesome. One of my all time favorite swimmers. You go girl!