- Allison Wagner
Allison Marie Wagner (born
July 21 ,1977 ) is a former American medley swimmer, who won the silver medal at the1996 Summer Olympics in the 400m individual medley. Many consider Wagnar the rightful gold medallist because the winner, Ireland'sMichelle Smith was widely regarded to have swum with the aid of performance-enhancing drugs even though she passed alldrug test s during the Olympics. In 1998 Smith was charged for manipulating a urine sample and banned for four years.Wagner was also named as the American Swimmer of the Year by
Swimming World magazine in1994 . [cite web | url = http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/SwimmersOfTheYear.asp | title = List of American Swimmers of the Year | publisher =Swimming World magazine | accessdate = 2007-01-14]Wagner won gold and silver respectively in the 200m and 400m individual medley at the
1993 FINA Short Course World Championships inSpain . Her time in the 200m medley (2:07.79) had stood as the world record in the event for over 14 years until Zimbabwe'sKristy Coventry broke it at the World Short Course Championships in April 2008 in Manchester. Coventry clocked 2:06.13. [cite web | url = http://www.fina.org/swimming/records/200m_individual_medley_women.php | title = Women's 200 m individual medley world records | publisher = FINA | accessdate = 2007-01-14]Coincidentally, throughout Wagner's career, she was often beaten by swimmers who were highly-suspected or proven users of banned substances. Besides Michelle Smith in the 1996 Olympics, Wagner finished 2nd behind China's Dai Guohong in the 1993 Short Course Worlds (200 IM) and China's Lu Bin at the 1994 Worlds (both 200 and 400 IM). Dai never failed any drug test (though the swimming community considers this being the result of sheer luck rather than a legimitate case), but Lu tested positive a few weeks after beating Wagner. She was allowed to keep her 200 IM gold though, which deprived Wagner of a rightful victory.
Wagner retired in
2000 , but is currently attempting a comeback. [cite web | url = http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=0&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&ItemId=1041&mid=45 | title = Wagner's comeback | publisher =USA Swimming | accessdate = 2006-04-04]References
* [http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/wa/allison-wagner-1.html sports-reference]
External links
* [http://www.allisonwagner.com/about.html Allison Wagner's website]
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