Nicole Haislett

Vocation

Notable

Family

American competitive swimmer, three-time Olympic gold medalist, world and American record-holder, and eight-time American national college champion. During her international swimming career, Haislett won twenty-two medals in major international championships, including fourteen golds. She won her three Olympic gold medals in 1992 at Barcelona in the 200m freestyle, 4×100m freestyle and 4×100m medley events. She competed in the 4×100m freestyle event together with Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres and Angel Martino, setting a new world record of 3:39.46 in the event final. Haislett was the first American woman to swim the 200-metre freestyle in under one minute, fifty-eight seconds (1:58), and held the American record until 2003, when it was broken by Lindsay Benko. After six months in residence at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, she announced her retirement from competition swimming in 1995, citing her prior success and waning motivation and competitive desire. Haislett was a "water baby"—she learned to swim at 18 months old. At the time, her parents merely wanted her to be comfortable in water, not intending that swimming would become her life focus. Link to Wikipedia biography