After-School All-Stars and Communities In Schools are thrilled that Olympic gold-medal swimmer, Crissy Perham, will be joining us at Splashdown for Kids at Wet N’ Wild this Sunday! She will be signing autographs for a limited amount of time.
Crissy’s swimming career started out, inauspiciously, with a small team located at the YMCA in Roseburg, OR. She was seven years old and though she was in the beginning of her appreciation for competition and sports, she was not very successful in her first outing. In fact, her Dad had to bribe her just to finish! Needless to say, a little success went a long way and she was hooked on swimming. Crissy continued to swim and compete in many other sports as she grew up, but swimming was the one constant.
Crissy moved to New London, IA, with her family, when she was 8 years old and joined the YMCA swim program in Burlington, IA. It was at this young age that Crissy made it a goal to go to the Olympics. No more bribes were necessary for success!
Crissy had exceptional high school and USS swimming careers and earned an athletic scholarship to swim at the University of Arizona. She was guided by two of the most successful swimming coaches in the United States, Frank Busch and Rick DeMont, himself an Olympian. This guidance and her personal growth enabled her to reach the pinnacle of swimming, the Olympics. Crissy was voted Captain of the 1992 Olympic Swim team and went on to win two Gold medals and one Silver medal representing the United States.
Since 1992, she has not left swimming or the pool behind. Crissy has coached at every level of swimming, from the smallest summer league team to collegiate level. She is also an active swim clinician, mentor and motivator for her sport, giving clinics, speaking engagements and coaching. She enjoys teaching others about her sport as a guest speaker to many different organizations, on many different levels, from meeting with children at local schools to speaking at business meetings for some of the most successful companies in the United States. Crissy has experience in dealing with the media, as well. She had a wonderful working relationship with the media as an athlete and was an Olympic commentator for NBC/KVOA of Tucson, AZ. She has also recorded and filmed several radio and television public service announcements.
Crissy continues to stay fit and volunteer in her community. She now shares her sport with her beautiful family. Her oldest son, Alex, was a successful swimmer and her youngest son, Ryan, is following in his brother’s footsteps. She has even converted her husband to the lifelong benefits of swimming.
