How Many Gold Medals Did Amy Van Dyken Win and In What Sport?

Do you want to know how many gold medals did Amy Van Dyken win and in what sport? Then read on for the answers and more information about Amy and olympic swimming.

Amy Van Dyken won four gold medals in swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. She was the first American woman to ever win four gold medals in a single olympic event. She won the:

• 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay
• 4 x 100 meter medley relay
• 50 meter
• 100 meter butterfly

In her career, Amy Van Dyken received two more gold medals at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia for the 4 x 100 Medley Relay and the 4 x 100 Freestyle Relay. So, in total, Amy Van Dyken has won four gold medals at one Olympics, two at another, making her Olympic career total six in swimming.

Let’s look at her early life and the struggles she faced on the way to Olympic Gold.   

Biography of Amy Van Dyken

Amy Van Dyken was born on February 15, 1973 in Englewood, Colorado. She has suffered from severe asthma her entire life, and took up swimming at a doctor’s suggestion to improve her lung function.

She improved her swimming skills through high school and at the University of Arizona. She transferred to Colorado State in 1994, broke the US record in the 50 yard freestyle at the NCAA championships, and was soon named NCAA female swimmer of the year. She became a member of the U.S. National Resident Team, training with coach Jonty Skinner, to prepare for the 1996 Olympics.     

She freely admits she is stubborn and mean, and psyches out her opponents before a race by staring, clapping, growling, and even spitting. However, her skill and power is what makes her a winner. When she is competing in a relay, her voice is the loudest, cheering on her teammates.  

After her amazing success at the 1996 Olympics, she received various awards:

• ESPN’s Female Athlete of the Year award
• Inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame
• Inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame
• Swimming World’s female Swimmer of the Year
• AP’s Female Athlete of the Year
• Sports Woman of the Year from USOC and the Women’s Sports Foundation
• Glamour Magazine’s Top 10 Woman of the Year
• ARETE's Courage in Sports Award

Amy Van Dyken is now retired from swimming and is married to Tom Rouen, an NFL punter. They reside in Colorado and Arizona, and she does public speaking and is sometimes a DJ on sports shows and a sideline reporter for the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos. She is actively involved in a number of charities, and runs, along with her husband, an annual fundraiser in Evergreen, Colorado, for disadvantaged youth.

She currently coaches the Notre Dame Preparatory High School’s varsity swim team in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is on the radio in Phoenix on the show “Chris and Amy in the Morning." She is the only American that was inducted in the International Swimming Hall of Fame’s class of 2007.  

Olympic Swimming

Swimming has been a skill learned from ancient times. The English were the first to take swimming and develop it into a sport. In the early 1800s, there were competitions in the six pools in London, and in 1880, the Amateur Swimming Association of Great Britain was formed.

Swimming was included in the first Olympic Games in 1896 with no women competing. The games were held in Athens, and scheduled six swimming events.  Only four of them took place: 100 meter, 500 meter, and 1200 meter freestyle, and one event for sailors.

In the coming years, more events were added as swimming became more popular, like the breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly. Soon, women began competing in Olympic Games, and women were allowed to compete in swimming events beginning in 1912. By 1996 Amy Van Dyken had won four gold medals in swimming.