Amy Van Dyken-Rouen stunned audiences in 1996, becoming the first American woman to win four gold medals at a single Olympics. “I’m that person that wants to prove someone wrong,†she said. “That’s the way we are. That’s the way we are wired. We are wired to be perfectionists and rise to any occasion when that occasion comes.†After winning four gold medals in 1996, she went on to earn two more in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Among American female Olympic swimmers, she has won the second most golds. She retired after Sydney, but in 2014 she found herself using her training as an athlete to push through a severe injury that left her paralyzed in a wheelchair.
