Swimming

<p>Becca is a 3x Paralympic Gold Medalist, 6x World Champion Gold Medalist, and holds 23 American Records, and 10 World Records. </p><p>Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Becca has Usher Syndrome and has been deaf since she was born. She could not hear anything for the first few years before she began using a cochlear implant, an electronic device that allows her to hear. Becca began to swim at the age of six in 2000.</p><p>In 2012, Becca was the only deaf athlete on the U.S.

Dara Torres is arguably the fastest female swimmer in America. She entered her first international swimming competition at age 14 and competed in her first Olympics a few years later in 1984.

At the Beijing Games in 2008, Torres became the oldest swimmer to compete in the Olympics. When she took three silver medals -- including the infamous heartbreaking 50-meter freestyle race where she missed the Gold by 1/100th of a second -- America loved her all the more for her astonishing achievement and her good-natured acceptance of the results.

<p>Amy Van Dyken is a 6-time Olympic gold medal champion swimmer who made history as the most successful athlete at the ’96 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia and the first American female athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympic games.</p>

<p>Van Dyken began swimming at age six in an effort to relieve childhood asthma, through which she developed a strong "will to win." That strength made her a star in the ‘96 Games, despite competing with about 65% of normal lung capacity.</p>