Amy Deloris Van Dyken-Rouen (born February 15, 1973) is an American former competitive swimmer, Olympic champion, former world record-holder, and national radio sports talk show co-host.  She won six Olympic gold medals in her career, four of which she won at the 1996 Summer Olympics, making her the first American woman to accomplish such a feat and the most successful athlete at the 1996 Summer Olympics.  She won gold in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly, 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and 4×100-meter medley relay.

Van Dyken had severe asthma throughout her childhood and into adulthood. She began swimming on the advice of a doctor as a way to strengthen her lungs to cope with her condition and prevent future asthma attacks.

She was named Swimming World American Swimmer of the Year in 1995 and 1996.

On June 6, 2014, Van Dyken was injured in a serious ATV accident that severed her spinal cord, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.

Early life
At the 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials, Van Dyken placed 4th in the 50-meter freestyle, just missing the Olympic team. After high school, Van Dyken attended the University of Arizona for two years before transferring to Colorado State University, where she broke her first (of many more to come) United States record with a time of 21.77 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle at the NCAA championships in 1994. She also placed second in the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard freestyle to Olympian Jenny Thompson.  In 1994 she was named the NCAA Female Swimmer of the Year. After college, she moved to the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to train full-time for the 1996 Olympics.

Olympic competition

1996 Summer Olympics
At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Van Dyken became the first American female athlete in to win 4 gold medals in a single Olympic games.  Her success in swimming won her a wide variety of awards and accolades, including: the ESPN Awards (ESPY) Female Athlete of the Year award; Swimming World magazine's female Swimmer of the Year award; induction into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame; induction into the US Olympic Hall of Fame; named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, USOC Sports Woman of the Year, the Women's Sports Foundation Sports Woman of the Year and USA Swimming Swimmer of the Year.

Van Dyken was also featured as one of Glamour magazine's Top 10 Women of the Year, named one of 25 most influential females in sport by Women's Sports and Fitness magazine and received the ARETE Courage in Sports award.  She has appeared on the cover of several newspapers and magazines, including USA Today, Newsweek, Time, Swimming World magazine, and Sports Illustrated. She was a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, and the Today Show.

2000 Summer Olympics
Van Dyken continued to compete after the 1996 Olympics, but was plagued by injury, including a shoulder injury which required several operations and which left her unable to train for over a year. She staged a comeback, however, and made the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team in the 50-meter freestyle, the 4×100 medley relay and the 4×100 freestyle relay. At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Van Dyken won two gold medals in these latter two events, and placed 4th in the 50-meter freestyle. This brought her total career Olympic medal count to six gold medals. In addition to her Olympic accomplishments, Van Dyken won several world titles and set numerous American and world records.

Van Dyken has the distinction of being one of the few Olympians whose medals are all gold.

Van Dyken lost public support when she spat in the lane of rival Inge de Bruijn at the 2000 Summer Olympics. After losing to de Bruijn, Van Dyken responded by saying she, too, could have won a gold medal "if I were a man."

Life after swimming

Van Dyken retired from swimming after the 2000 Olympics and married former NFL punter Tom Rouen not long after. They split their time between Colorado and Arizona.

After retiring from swimming, Van Dyken announced that she was going to compete in triathlon. In 2001, Van Dyken finished a one-third-mile swim, 15.2-mile bike ride and 3.1-mile run Sunday in two hours, 10.5 seconds in the Saturn Triathlon in Monument, Colo., to place 28th among 34 women in the 25-to-29 age group. On August 9, 2001, Van Dyken completed the Danskin Women's Triathlon in Denver with a time of 1:38:11, 109 out of 349 in the female 25-29 age group.

In 2003, Van Dyken was called to testify before a grand jury regarding the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) steroid scandal. While Van Dyken was a regular client at BALCO, she has never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

Since her retirement, Van Dyken has toured on a number of speaking engagements to groups as varied as schools and multi-national corporations, has been a disc jockey on a sports radio show in Arizona, served as the side-line reporter for the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos football teams, and acted in the award-winning stage-play the Vagina Monologues. She is actively involved in a number of charities, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and along with husband Rouen runs an annual celebrity fundraiser in Evergreen, Colorado, to raise money for disadvantaged youth. She was the head coach of the varsity swim team at Notre Dame Preparatory High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. On May 12, she was the only American swimmer to be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Class of 2007. She was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in July 2008.

Van Dyken became the morning co-host at the #1 Ranked Mix 96.9 KMXP-FM in Phoenix, Arizona in July 2008 where she joined host Chris Parker. Eventually she and Parker moved over to rival KPKX-FM where she was morning drive-time host on 98.7 The Peak FM as a part of "Chris and Amy in the Morning" from 2010 to 2011. She resigned from 98.7 The Peak FM on July 12, 2011, to "attend to some family issues that are going to take her back to Denver." She was the co-host of Fox Sports Radio's Fox Sports Tonight with Rob Dibble until December 2013.

ATV accident
On June 6, 2014, Van Dyken was in a serious ATV accident and severed her spinal cord at the T11 vertebra. She was conscious when rescued and airlifted to a hospital where she had emergency surgery to stabilize her spinal cord and vertebral column. The injury to the area came within millimeters of impacting and potentially rupturing her aorta. However, the accident left her paralyzed from the waist down.

After two months of rehabilitation, Van Dyken left Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colorado, saying, "I'm a better person than before the injury," and with the help of a walker and an apparent bionic device that aids her legs, took her first steps.

See also

 List of multiple Olympic gold medalists
 List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games
 List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
 List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (women)
 World record progression 50 metres butterfly
 World record progression 4 × 100 metres freestyle relay

References

External links
 
 
 
 
 Amy Van Dyken – Colorado Encyclopedia

1973 births
Living people
American people of Dutch descent
American female butterfly swimmers
American female freestyle swimmers
American radio personalities
Arizona Wildcats women's swimmers
Colorado State Rams women's swimmers
World record setters in swimming
Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics
National Football League announcers
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming
People with paraplegia
Swimmers at the 1995 Pan American Games
Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States
Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States
World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
Pan American Games medalists in swimming
Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games
에이미 밴 다이켄(Amy Van Dyken, 1973년 2월 15일 ~ )은 미국의 전 수영 선수로 하계 올림픽 챔피언이며 전 세계 기록 보유자이며, 현재 라디오 스포츠 토크쇼의 공동 진행자이다. 그녀는 6개의 올림픽 금메달을 획득하였으며, 4개는 1996년 애틀랜타 올림픽에서 땄으며 그 성취를 이루는 데 첫 미국 여성 선수와 경기의 최우수 선수로 만들었다. 그녀는 50m 자유형, 100m 접영, 400m 자유형 계주와 400m 혼계영을 우승하였다.

밴 다이켄은 어린 시절을 통하여 성인기로 들어가 심한 천식으로 고통을 받았다. 그녀는 자신의 상태에 대응하고 천식 발작의 후유증을 방지하기 위해 자신의 폐를 강화하는 방법으로 의사의 조언에 따라 수영을 시작했다.

그녀는 스위밍 월드 잡지에 의하여 1995년과 1996년 "올해의 미국 수영 선수"로 임명되었다.

2014년 6월 6일 밴 다이켄은 자신의 척추골을 간소하게 한 전지형차 사고를 당하여 하반신마비로 놓여졌다.

초기 생애 
콜로라도주 덴버에서 태어난 밴 다이켄은 1992년 미국 올림픽 선발 시합에서 50m 자유형 4위를 하면서 뽑히는 데 놓쳤다. 고등학교를 졸업한 후, 밴 다이켄은 1994년 NCAA 선수권에서 자신이 50 야드 자유형에서 21.77초와 함께 첫 미국 기록을 깬 콜로라도 주립 대학교로 옮기기 전에 애리조나 대학교에서 2년간 수학하였다.

그녀는 또한 100 야드 접영과 100 야드 자유형에서 올림픽 선수 제니 톰슨에 밀려 2위를 하였다. 1994년에 그녀는 "올해의 NCAA 여성 수영 선수"로 임명되었다. 대학 이후에 그녀는 콜로라도 스프링스에 있는 미국 올림픽 훈련 센터로 옮겨 1996년 하계 올림픽을 위하여 전임으로 훈련하였다.

올림픽 경연

1996년 하계 올림픽 
1996년 애틀랜타 올림픽에서 밴 다이켄은 올림픽 역사상 단 하나의 경기에서 4개의 금메달을 획득한 첫 미국의 여성 선수가 되었다. 수영에서 그녀의 성공은 ESPN "올해의 여성 선수상", 스위밍 월드 잡지의 "올해의 여성 수영 선수 상"을 수상, 콜로라도주 스포츠 명예의 전당에 헌액, 미국 올림픽 명예의 전당에 헌액되고 AP "올해의 여성 선수", USOC "올해의 스포츠 여성" 여성 스포츠 재단의 "올해의 스포츠 여성"가 USA 스위밍의 "올해의 수영 선수"로 임명되는 것을 포함하여 넓게 다양한 상과 영예를 얻었다.

그녀는 또한 글래무어 잡지의 "올해의 톱 10 수영 선수"로 나와 "우먼즈 스포츠 앤드 핏네스" 잡지에 의하여 스포츠에서 25명의 가장 영향력 있는 여성들 중의 하나로 임명되고, 스포츠 시상식에서 ARETE 용기상을 받았다. 그녀는 USA 투데이, 뉴스위크, 타임, 스위밍 월드 잡지와 스포츠 일러스트레이티드를 포함한 신문과 잡지들의 표지에 아름답게 꾸며졌다.

밴 다이켄은 데이비드 레터맨쇼, 로지 오도널 쇼와 투데이 쇼에서 특별 손님이었다. 그녀는 또한 세계에서 명성을 얻은 사진가 애니 라이보비츠에 의하여 찍혀진 사진과 함께 우유 광고에 나오고, 자신이 소유하는 휘티즈 상자와 함께 명예를 가렸다.

2000년 하계 올림픽 
애틀랜타 올림픽 이후에 그녀는 지속적으로 나갔으나 1년 동안 훈련하지 못하게 남겨 몇몇의 수술을 필요로 한 어깨 부상을 포함한 부상에 시달렸다. 그녀는 복귀를 상연하였으며, 50m 자유형, 400m 혼계영과 400m 자유형 계주에서 2000년 미국 올림픽 팀에 이루었다.

시드니 올림픽에서 밴 다이켄은 이 후반의 종목들에서 2개의 금메달을 획득하고, 50m 자유형에서 4위를 하였다. 이 일은 그녀의 총경력에 6개의 올림픽 금메달을 가져왔다. 그녀의 올림픽 성취에 추가로 밴 다이켄은 몇몇의 세계 타이틀을 우승하고 다수의 미국과 세계 기록들을 세웠다.

밴 다이켄은 메달들이 다 좋은 몇몇의 올림픽 선수들 중의 하나로서 우수성을 가지고 있다.

외부 링크 
 에이미 밴 다이켄 - 올림픽 선수 profile at Sports-Reference.com

1973년 출생
살아있는 사람
미국의 여자 수영 선수
올림픽 수영 메달리스트
1996년 하계 올림픽 수영 참가 선수
2000년 하계 올림픽 수영 참가 선수
미국의 올림픽 금메달리스트
여자 자유형 선수
여자 접영 선수
수영 세계 기록 수립자
국제 수영 명예의 전당 헌액자
네덜란드계 미국인
덴버 출신
미국의 올림픽 수영 참가 선수
1996년 하계 올림픽 메달리스트
2000년 하계 올림픽 메달리스트
1995년 팬아메리칸 게임 수영 참가 선수
미국의 팬아메리칸 게임 금메달리스트
미국의 팬아메리칸 게임 은메달리스트
팬아메리칸 게임 수영 메달리스트
1995년 팬아메리칸 게임 메달리스트