Dana Vollmer Swims Sub-1:00 100 Fly at U.S. Nationals for Final Race of Career

2019 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• July 31 – August 4, 2019
• Prelims 9:00 AM/Finals 5:00 PM (U.S. Pacific Standard Time)
• Avery Aquatics Center (Stanford, CA)
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American record holder Dana Vollmer swam the final race of her career, her signature 100 fly, in prelims at the 2019 U.S. National Championships in Palo Alto Friday morning. She broke one minute yet again, a feat she’s achieved over 110 times in her career.

Vollmer went 59.94 (27.99/31.95) in heat 12 and will not advance to the final tonight, finishing 32nd overall. She posted on Instagram Friday morning thanking her supporters for coming out to watch:

Vollmer, 31, was a player on the international swimming stage for 15 years. She announced Monday that Friday’s race would be her last.

• Click here to read her full 2.5-page retirement letter, posted by NBC.

At Olympic Trials in 2000, Vollmer was the youngest competitor at just 12 years old. At 16, she swum at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and finished sixth in the 200 freestyle; she was on the United States’ gold medal 4×200 free relay.

She missed the 2008 Olympic team but rebounded in a big way in 2012, winning 100 fly gold and setting a world record in London; she became the first woman to break :56 and still holds the American record at 55.98. Vollmer was again on the U.S.’s winning 4×200 free relay as well as the 4×100 medley relay team that year. In 2015, she took time off to have her first child, then came back to make the 2016 team. She took bronze in the 100 fly in Rio as well as gold on the 4×100 medley relay and silver on the 4×100 free relay.

After having her second child in July 2017, Vollmer returned to competing in November 2018, but hadn’t hit the times it would take to set her up to make the 2020 Games; her 100 fly season best was 59.27, from the Pro Swim Series stop in Knoxville in January. That time was tied for No. 17 in the nation this season before Nationals.

She raced multiple stops of the inaugural FINA Champions Series this spring, and her 100 fly best from that tour was 1:00.78. She announced she injured her shoulder during her race at the Budapest stop in May and had not competed again until Friday morning.

The Cal alum has continued to train under Teri McKeever since graduating in 2009. Vollmer was the Golden Bears’ most valuable swimmer for three consecutive years, the Pac-10 Swimmer of the Year in 2009, and the 2008–09 recipient of the Honda Sports Award for Swimming and Diving. She earned 20 All-American honors in college, won individual NCAA titles in the 100 fly in 2007, and 100 and 200 frees in 2009, and led the Bears to their first NCAA team championship in 2009.

She will retire with 10 long course and six short course World Championships medals in addition to her seven Olympic medals.