Amy Van Dyken/
Swimming
In the 1996 Olympic Games, Amy Van Dyken won four gold medals, two on relays, becoming the most decorated American female athlete of the 1996 Games and the first American woman to win four gold medals in one Olympiad. She set a new individual American record in the 50m freestyle with a time of 24.87 sec.
Van Dyken is the third-fastest woman in the history of the 50m freestyle (25.03 sec.) and fifth-fastest American woman ever in the 100m freestyle (55.27 sec.). She broke her own American and U.S. Open record at the 1995 Pan Pacifics in the 50m freestyle and was a member of the Pan Pacifics and U.S. open record setting 400m freestyle relay and the silver-medal winning 400m medley relay.
At the 1995 Pan American Games she won the 100m butterfly and placed second in the 100m freestyle. She was also a member of the 1995 Pan American record-setting 400m freestyle and 400m medley relays. That year she was selected by Swimming World Magazine as the 1995 American Female Swimmer of the Year. In 1995 she was ranked first in the world in the 50m free, an improvement from her third place world-ranking in 1994.
Van Dyken was awarded the Women's Sports Foundation Individual Sportswoman of the Year in 1996. (10/96)