Allison Wagner
Allison Wagner is an Olympic silver medalist in the 400m individual medley in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and a former world record holder and world champion in the individual medley. She is now a pilates instructor who rehabilitates individuals through swimming.
Swimming Career[edit]
Wagner won the gold medal in the 200-meter individual medley and the silver medal in the 400-meter individual medley at the 1993 FINA World Championships in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Her winning time in the 200-meter medley (2:07.79) stood as the world record in the event for over 14 years until Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry broke it at the World Short Course Championships in April 2008 in Manchester, England, when Coventry clocked 2:06.13.
Swimming World magazine named Wagner as its American Swimmer of the Year in January 1994—when she was only 16 years old. At the 1994 U.S. long-course championships held in August 1994, she won the national titles in the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley events, as well as the 200-meter breaststroke.
Wagner won seven Southeastern Conference (SEC) titles and the 1995 NCAA title in the 400-yard individual medley and was named the SEC Female Swimmer of the Year in 1995 and 1996 and the Gators' Most Valuable Swimmer in 1996, and received eleven All-American honors.
At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Wagner won the silver medal in the 400-meter individual medley, finishing second behind Ireland's Michelle Smith. Four days later, she swam in the 200-meter individual medley and finished sixth.
On several occasions during Wagner's career, she was beaten in major championships by swimmers who were highly-suspected or later proven to be users of banned performance-enhancing substances. Besides Michelle Smith in the 1996 Olympics, Wagner finished second behind China's Dai Guohong in the 1993 Short Course World Championships (200-meter individual medley) and China's Lü Bin at the 1994 Worlds (both 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley). Dai never failed a drug test, but Lu tested positive a few weeks after beating Wagner. Nevertheless, Lu was allowed to keep her 200-meter individual medley gold medal.
She also participated in the 2009 Fiji Swims.
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