While rising butterfly sensation Kelsi Worrell ran away with the National title in the women’s 100 fly last night, another butterfly sensation was also present in that heat, and made significant waves of her own: American Record holder Dana Vollmer.
Being the only woman in American history to go under 56 seconds in the 100m fly (and the only woman in history period until this past week when Sarah Sjostrom took a decent size chunk out of Vollmer’s WR), Vollmer has just recently gotten back into the pool and started competing. While many thought she had retired completely after the 2013 World Championships (and giving birth to her first child), she never removed herself from the drug-testing pool, and therefore was never technically out of the game.
We first saw her compete again at the LA Invite in July, where we saw her go 1:00.05 in prelims, and then added a few tenths in finals to go 1:00.72. This National Championships were only her second meet back to competion, but Vollmer wasted no time in asserting her dominance. In prelims she swam a swift 59.18, and in finals was able to better that slightly with a 58.94.
The fact that Vollmer has gone from 1:00 to :58 with 5 months of training under her belt certainly speaks to her being a serious contender in the upcoming olympic year for the Americans. Keep in mind she’s doing all of this while still caring for her newly born son, Arlin. Anywhere Dana goes, Arlin goes, which doesn’t make the stresses of travel or competing abroad any easier. So with all this added into her regiment, she can still pop a :58. Who knows what she can do with a full year of training and motherly experience under her belt?