Erin Phenix

Erin Phenix

Personal information
Nationality	United States
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	freestyle
College team	University of Texas at Austin
Medal record Olympic Games 2000 Sydney 4 x 100 m freestyle relay World Championships - Long Course 2001 Fukuoka 4 x 100 m freestyle relay 2001 Fukuoka 4 x 100 m medley relay

Erin Phenix (born January 3, 1981 in Cincinnati, Ohio), is an American swimmer who won a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Early life

Phenix was raised in Blue Ash, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, by her mother, Laurie. . She had her first swimming lessons at the age of eight. In 1997, at Ursuline Academy, she won the state championship as part of the 200 yard freestyle relay team. The next year, she earned individual state championships in both the 50 and 100 yard freestyle, while participating in the championships relay teams at both 200 and 400 yard distances.. In her final year at Ursuline, she would repeat as champion in those four races, and be named the GGCL swimmer of the year, and the Cincinnati Enquirer swimmer of the year.

Texas and the Olympics

In 1999, Phenix enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin on an athletic scholarship. At the U.S. Olympic Trials on August 14, 2000, she placed sixth in the 100 metre freestyle, earning a spot on the 4 x 100 metre relay squad in Sydney. In Sydney, Phenix swam in the preliminary heat, and when the U.S. team won the finals, she was awarded a gold medal.

Though she would swim at the Olympic Trials again in 2004, she failed to qualify for the Athens games, effectively ending her swimming career in international competitions.