By Zola Elder
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Jennifer Beth Thompson, who is 50 today, (born February 26, 1973) is an American former competition swimmer and anesthesiologist.
She is one of the most decorated Olympians in history: twelve medals, including eight gold medals, in the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 Summer Olympics.
Thompson, a Massachusetts native who calls Dover, New Hampshire her hometown, began swimming at age 7 at a summer country club called Cedardale in Groveland, Massachusetts. During the indoor season, she swam at the Danvers YMCA from ages 8 to 10, and then at the Andover-North Andover YMCA from the ages of 10 to 12. At age 12 she began swimming for Seacoast Swimming Association under coaches Amy and Mike Parratto, and moved to Dover at age 13.
She first appeared on the international scene as a 14-year-old in 1987, when she won the 50-meter freestyle and placed third in the 100-meter freestyle at the Pan American Games. She won her first world championship in 1991, as part of the USA’s winning 4×100-meter freestyle relay team, and held the world record in the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle when she participated in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
Thompson attended Stanford University, and swam for the Stanford Cardinal swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and Pacific-10 Conference competition. She was the recipient of the 1994–95 Honda Sports Award for Swimming and Diving, recognizing her as the outstanding college female swimmer of the year.
In 2006, Thompson received a medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, completed a residency in anesthesiology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and then a fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology at Children’s Hospital of Boston.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- King Louis XVI of France –
- Oliver Perry (naval hero) –
- Edgar Lee Masters (poet) –
- Gene Kelly (dancer & actor) –
- Barbara Eden (actress) –
- River Phoenix (actor) –
- Scott Caan (actor) –
- Kobe Bryant (basketball player) –
- Mike Yastrzemski (baseball player) –
Died
- Alexander Wilson (ornithologist) –
- Oliver Perry (naval hero) –
- Rudolph Valentino (actor) –
- Oscar Hammerstein II (lyricist) –
- Hoyt Wilhelm (baseball player, first relief pitcher ever elected to the baseball hall of fame) –
- Bobby Bonds (baseball player) –
- Marion Hargrove (G.I. whose account of Army basic training, See Here, Private Hargrove, became a best seller in 1942 and turned him into a World War II celebrity) –
Events
- In London, the first one-way street was established–
- Emmanuel Allen last enslaved person sold in Canada –
- Fannie Farmer opened a cooking school in Boston, MA–
- Marseilles liberated–
- Ranger I lunar probe launched–
- U.S. Lunar Orbiter 1 took famed photo of Earth from Moon’s orbit–
- Jenny Thompson swam 100-meter butterfly in 57.88 seconds–
- An 5.8-magnitude earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Virginia, caused buildings to be evacuated across Washington, D.C., and New York City. The quake was felt as far south as Chapel Hill, North Carolina.–
- Two-pound blue lobster caught off Pine Point in Scarborough, Maine–
Weather
- A major hurricane made landfall over Nags Head, North Carolina; tracked into Chesapeake Bay; and had wind gusts up to 88 mph in Norfolk, Virginia–
- Storm formed that later became Hurricane Katrina–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
