Amy Van Dyken was born in Englewood, Colorado, in 1973. She was a sick child. The doctors told her parents that Amyhad asthma. People with asthma sometimes can’t breathe. Amy went to the hospital many times when she started to swim and liked it. When she swam, she could be like all the other chidren. In the beginning, she was slow. When there was a race, she was always the last. It was very hard for her, but she swam faster and faster. When she was 13, she started to win races.