Jenny Thompson

World competitions and records

She won two gold medals as part of the 4×100-meter freestyle and 4×100-meter medley relay teams. Controversy arose after the 100-meter freestyle when the U.S. team speculated on loose doping policy standards in Barcelona; at that time the event winner did not have a mandatory doping test—only the second and fourth-place finishers were tested based on a random draw. Thompson and her teammates believed the Olympic champion should be tested, and the rule was changed a few months later after nine members of the Chinese swimming team tested positive for steroid use.

During her four years at Stanford, Thompson was a member of four NCAA championship teams and amassed nineteen individual and relay NCAA titles. She competed as a member of the USA Finswimming Team at the 8th World Championship in Hungary in August 1996. A poor performance at the 1996 Olympic Trials kept her from qualifying in individual events, but she won gold medals on three relay teams at those Olympics: the 4×100-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter medley, and 4×200-meter freestyle.

Between 1997 and 1999, Thompson won eight more world championship titles, including three consecutive in the 100-meter freestyle. She swam the anchor leg in helping the USA defend its titles in the 4×100-meter freestyle and 4×200-meter freestyle relays, and also swam the butterfly leg in the winning 4×100-meter medley relay; the 4×100-meter freestyle and medley teams set new world records. At the World Championships that year, she broke the world record in the 100-meter butterfly for the fourth time, winning a qualifying heat in 56.56 en route to a gold medal.

Recent life and work

Thompson received a medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2006. She completed an internship at New York City Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, a residency in anesthesiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and a fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology at Children's Hospital of Boston.

In June 2010, she was assaulted when two men attempted to steal her scooter, but she fought off both attackers. She married Daniel Richard Cumpelik on September 5, 2010. Since 1995, she has volunteered as a celebrity swimmer for Swim Across America, a charity raising money for cancer research.

Did You Know?

• Thompson was the 1993 and 1998 USA Swimming Swimmer of the Year.
• She was ranked the 62nd greatest female athlete of all time in a 1999 Sports Illustrated poll.