Olympic Swimmer Dana Vollmer Dives Headfirst Into Golden Victories and Wedded Bliss

I had ACL reconstruction and I had a herniated disc in my back and it just for the longest time it felt like I always had something. I was constantly rehabbing, but I was still swimming fast and so I was like, well, I must be doing something right.

Barouk here with Young Hollywood chatting with Olympic gold medalist and world record breaker Dana Vollmer about what really happens in the Olympic village and how an accidental text message led to her finding the love of her life. How are you, Dana?

Doing great.

Congratulations on breaking the world record and on all of this gold I'm seeing over here.

Thank you so much. It's been such an amazing experience and now kind of the whirlwind of being back in the States and it's nice to kind of have a few days, sight see in New York and have some fun.

Now is it just as exhilarating the second and third time as it is the first time you win a gold medal?

Uh, I mean every every time. It just I I set really high goals and so when I think about kind of my individual goals, I do I did set out to want to win. But then every time you get a medal it's just you never think that you're gonna get to have three. And just each time it was even better and getting the first one being an individual and then getting to be on a relay team and then the medley relay is always my favorite relay ever. And so it just was an absolute perfect way to finish the meet.

How about breaking a world record? That has to be a whole new level.

It is, it's it's still sinking in to think that no one has ever gone faster than me. That's really cool. And uh, you know, I I I knew I could do it. I know that I had the potential in me to have a swim like that and the training, the alternative training I've been doing with the ocean and pilati and spin classes and different things like that and and I just knew that I was ready to have that breakout performance and to be able to do it on the Olympic stage and with a gold medal it was just absolutely incredible.

Now, tell me about the Olympic village. What's it actually like to live in there day to day?

This was by far the best village I've ever been in. And uh, it was it was really nice. The rooms were nice. I got to room with Rebecca Soni and uh, we love rooming together and the dining hall was really nice.

What's the competition like within the village? Do you feel that competitive energy between all the athletes?

I didn't at all. And that's one thing I love about being at the Olympics and I feel like everyone's just really excited to be there. They're honored. They've all worked really hard to get there and they're excited to meet everyone and hear everyone's stories and getting to sit with other athletes whether it's U. S. athletes or other countries athletes.

It hasn't been all smooth sailing for you getting to London. You of course have a heart condition and you've been very vocal about it. Tell me about the perseverance that it took to get through that challenge.

Yeah, I've definitely had my share of injuries. And um, starting with the heart condition and finding out that I had a rapid heartbeat in practice. And we didn't know what it was and I assumed it was nutrition or I was dehydrated or something and uh to find out later that they saw patterns of long QT syndrome and I might not ever be able to swim again. And to be able to continue to swim and have my parents really be my rock and that and taking on the responsibility of carrying a defibrillator to every workout, every cardio session I had to do just just in case something happened. And they really took the fear away from me. I didn't have to take on that if I pushed myself too hard I I might not my heart might not make it through the workout. And um, having parents that supported me that way through all of the injuries that I've had to deal with. I had ACL reconstruction and I had a herniated disc in my back and it just for the longest time it felt like I always had something. I was constantly rehabbing, but I was still swimming fast and so I was like, well, I must be doing something right.

You of course are about to start, well, I think you'll probably give yourself a few days off before you start training for real. How are you gonna spend your downtime?

I'm really excited just to go home and spend some time with my husband and we have a uh English bulldog puppy. She's a year old and and our one year anniversary is coming up on August 20th.

Thank you. So one year flew by. Congratulations. Speaking of your husband, I love a story that I heard the other day about how you guys actually became a couple. It started with an accidental text message.

Yeah, um, okay. So I met him when I was 16 at the 2004 Olympic trials. And uh got his number and he he was instantly that guy that was like my dream guy. But that I was I was only 16 so I was terrified to talk to him. I was just like, hi, like you're actually speaking to me. And through the years his phone number stayed in my phone. I think I've had three phones since then. And then in college I was great friends with uh an Andy his name is Andy Oroz and he's on the baseball team and I was just sending him a text saying, hey, haven't seen you in forever. Like let's get together. Accidentally sent it to my husband Andy. And so he wrote me back and it was kind of flirtatious and I was like, oh, like my friend you're being weird. Like I don't know why you're writing me like that. And so I kind of ignored it. And then my husband wrote me on Facebook three days later and was like, I loved the random message. I'd love to get together. And that's when I saw his profile picture and I swear I almost fainted. I was like, I can't believe I wrote him because I can talk to guys that I don't am not interested in but I get so shy and awkward if I actually wanna talk to them. And so I never I don't think I ever would have written him on my own. And so it it had to be fate.

So initially he seemed out of reach and now you're married.

Yeah, now we're married.

I think it's an overall theme, you know from from gold achieving that gold medal getting that guy. It's about a little bit of of life happenstance mixed with a lot of hard work.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's just everything seems to be falling into place for me right now and and I could not be happier.

Dana, congratulations and good luck in Rio.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.