Amy Van Dyken was born in Englewood, Colorado, in 1973. She was q sick child. The doctors told her parents that Amy had asthma. People with asthma sometimes can't breathe. Amy went to the hospital many times when she was young . She couldn't do the things other children could do. Then she started to swim and liked it. When she swam, she could be like all the other children. ln the beginning she was slow. When there was a race she was qlways the last. it was very hard for her but she swam faster and faster. When she was 13 she started to win races.