Amy van Dyken she was asthma . She couldn't do the things other children could do. Then she started to swim and liked it. In the beginning, she was slow. But she swam faster and faster. When she was 13 , she started to win races. In 1994, amy was College Swimmer of the Year. Amy decided to leave college she wanted to train for the 1996 Olympics full time. The Olympics arrived in 1996. She won four gold medals! She was the first American woman to win four gold medals in one Olympics.