Rhi Jeffrey

Personal information
Full name	Rhiannon Jeffrey[1]
Nickname	"Rhi"
National team	United States
Born	(1986-10-25)October 25, 1986 (age 39) Delray Beach, Florida
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight	198 lb (90 kg)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle
Club	Atlantis Aquatics
College team	University of Southern California
Medal record Women's swimming Representingthe United States Olympic Games 2004 Athens 4×200 m freestyle World Championships (LC) 2003 Barcelona 4×100 m freestyle 2003 Barcelona 4×200 m freestyle Pan Pacifics 2002 Yokohama 4x100 freestyle

Rhiannon Jeffrey (born October 25, 1986^[2]) is a former^[3] American swimmer who won a gold medal at the2004 Summer Olympics.

Jeffrey began swimming at the age of six,^[3] and won eightFlorida state titles while in high school atAtlantic Community High School inDelray Beach, Florida. She was named state swimmer of the year four years in a row by theSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel.^[4] In 2003, for her senior year at Atlantic, she was joined on the swim team by her younger sister Kirstie.^[4]

Jeffrey's first taste of international success was at the2002 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships where she swam on the U.S. 4x100 freestyle relay team that took a silver medal.^[2] While still a senior in high school, she won two gold medals in the2003 World Aquatics Championships; swimming as part of the U.S. teams in both the 4x100 and 4x200 freestyle relays.^[5]

Jeffrey was highly recruited,^[6] and chose to go across the country to theUniversity of Southern California inLos Angeles.^[2] Just two weeks before the 2004United States Olympic Trials, Jeffrey was hospitalized with an abscessed tonsil;^[3] she recovered in time to take 4th place in the 200 metre freestyle at the competition, and earn a spot on the 4x200 metre relay team in Athens.^[2] In Athens she swam in the preliminary heats of the4x200 freestyle relay, and when the U.S. team won the final, she was awarded a gold medal.^[2]

While training in New Zealand, Jeffrey, who was 24 at the time, entered into a relationship with a teammate named Justin Wright, who was 17. The story generated significant controversy and media attention.^[7] Wright's parents withdrew their consent for him to continue to train, including not paying his dues to Swimming New Zealand. Wright, in what local media members consider to be a legal precedent, won permission from a court to become a member of Swimming New Zealand "against his parents' wishes.", and moved out of their house and in with Jeffrey. Their planned wedding was called off a year later.^[8]

In 2007, Jeffrey left USC and gave up swimming four months before theU.S. Olympic Trials for the2008 Summer Olympics.^[3] She relocated toSalem, Massachusetts, and took a job withApple Inc. Jeffrey is currently the head swim coach for the Atlantis Aquatics swim team in Portsmouth, NH.https://www.teamunify.com/TabGeneric.jsp?_tabid_=176697&team=necsc^[3]

• List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
• List of University of Southern California people
• List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (women)

• Rhi Jeffrey at the U.S. Olympic Team at theWayback Machine (archived 2008-05-15)
• Rhi Jeffrey atOlympics.com
• Rhi Jeffrey atOlympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)

• 1986 births
• Living people
• American female freestyle swimmers
• Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics
• Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming
• Sportspeople from Delray Beach, Florida
• Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics
• USC Trojans women's swimmers
• World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
• 21st-century American sportswomen

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