Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Joan Christel Simms |
Nationality | ![]() |
Born | Honolulu, Hawaii | September 20, 1990
Height | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) |
Sport | |
Sport | Swimming |
Strokes | Freestyle |
Club | Hawaii Swim Club |
College team | USC Trojans |
Christel Simms is from Ewa Beach, Hawaii and was a college swimmer who attended the University of Southern California. She represented the Republic of the Philippines at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing in the sport of swimming for the 100-meter freestyle event. [1]
Simms passed the Olympic qualifying standard for the 100-meter freestyle swimming event at 57.17 seconds on August 8, 2007 at the USA Junior National Swimming Championships at Indianapolis. So far, Simms has broken 54 individual Hawaii State records since she was 9 years old. Simms became a member of the USA National Junior Swimming Team in 2007.
She recorded a 57.12-second time for the 100-meter freestyle heat and 26.38-second time for the 50-meter freestyle—both passing the USA Olympic trial cut.
Simms was the seventh female representative in the entire history of the Republic of the Philippines to compete in the Olympics, since the country first participated in the Paris 1924 games.
Throughout her swimming career, Simms has continued to play a leadership role among Hawaii swimmers. One of her most notable achievements include consecutively placing high among the annual, nationwide USA Swimming “Top 16 Age Group” ranking since the age of 12. A few of her most notable sport highlights include: making the USA National Junior Swimming Team at 16 years old, qualifying for the Olympics, being a 10-time Hawaii State Champion, a 4-time recipient of the Governor Linda Lingle Most Outstanding Female Swimmer Award, breaking a Western zone record in the 200-meter freestyle event at 13 years old, and having broken 54 state records (not including relays) to date.
A regular week of training for Simms typically includes a comprehensive exercise schedule of both swimming and dry land exercise – three to four hours each day, six days a week – totaling up to 18 to 24 hours a week. As a 6-year Hawaii Swim Club member, Simms trains 3 times a week at the Salt Lake Recreation Center and 3 times a week at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Waipio, Hawaii.
Christel's full name is Joan Christel Simms but she is known to her peers as "Christel."
Janet Beth Evans is an American former competition swimmer who specialized in distance freestyle events. Evans was a world champion and world record-holder, and won a total of four gold medals at the 1988 and the 1992 Olympics.
Matthew Nicholas Biondi is an American former competitive swimmer and water polo player. As a swimmer, he is an eleven-time Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder in five events. Biondi competed in the Summer Olympic Games in 1984, 1988 and 1992, winning a total of eleven medals. During his career, he set three individual world records in the 50-meter freestyle and four in the 100-meter freestyle.
Natalie Anne Coughlin Hall is an American former competition swimmer and twelve-time Olympic medalist. While attending the University of California, Berkeley, she became the first woman ever to swim the 100-meter backstroke in less than one minute—ten days before her 20th birthday in 2002. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, she became the first U.S. female athlete in modern Olympic history to win six medals in one Olympiad, and the first woman ever to win a 100-meter backstroke gold in two consecutive Olympics. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she earned a bronze medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
Dana Whitney Vollmer is a former American competition swimmer, five-time Olympic gold medalist, and former world record-holder. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she won a gold medal as a member of the winning United States team in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay that set the world record in the event. Eight years later at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Vollmer set the world record on her way to the gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly, and also won golds in the 4×100-meter medley relay and 4×200-meter freestyle relay. She won three medals including a gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Dara Grace Torres is an American former competitive swimmer, who is a 12-time Olympic medalist and former world record-holder in three events. Torres is the first swimmer to represent the United States in five Olympic Games, and at age 41, the oldest swimmer to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic team. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, she competed in the 50-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter medley relay, and 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and won silver medals in all three events.
Allison Rodgers Schmitt is an American competition swimmer who specializes in freestyle events. She is a four-time Olympian and a ten-time Olympic medalist.
Melissa Franklin Johnson is an American former competitive swimmer and five-time Olympic medalist. She held the world record in the 200-meter backstroke from 2012 to 2019. As a member of the U.S. national swim team, she also held the world records in the 4×100-meter medley relay.
Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky is an American competitive swimmer. She has won nine Olympic gold medals and 21 world championship gold medals, the most in history for a female swimmer. With 14 medals and 9 gold medals, she is also the most decorated American woman, most decorated female swimmer, the female with the most gold medals and fifth-most decorated athlete in Olympic history. She has won a record 16 individual gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships. Ledecky's eight individual medals at the Olympics and 26 overall medals at the World Aquatics Championships are records in women's swimming. Ledecky is the world record holder in the women's 800- and 1500-meter freestyle, as well as the former world record holder in the women's 400-meter freestyle. She also holds the fastest-ever times in the women's 500-, 1000-, and 1650-yard freestyle events. She is widely regarded as the greatest female swimmer of all time and one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
Shannon Vreeland is an American former competition swimmer specializing in freestyle and Olympic gold medallist. She was a member of the 2012 United States Olympic team, and won a gold medal in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay at the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Vreeland had won a total of nineteen medals in major international competitions, including thirteen gold medals, three silver, and three bronze, spanning the Olympics, World Championships, Pan Pacific Championships, and Summer Universiade. Vreeland retired after the 2016 Olympic Trials and began attending law school at Vanderbilt University in the fall of 2016.
Lia Neal is a former American professional swimmer who specialized in freestyle events. In her Olympic debut at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, she won a bronze medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. In 2016, she won a silver medal in the same event at Rio de Janeiro. She was the second female African-American swimmer to make a U.S. Olympic team.
Simone Ashley Manuel is an American professional swimmer specializing in freestyle events. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, she won two gold and two silver medals: gold in the 100-meter freestyle and the 4×100-meter medley, and silver in the 50-meter freestyle and the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. In winning the 100-meter freestyle, a tie with Penny Oleksiak of Canada, Manuel became the first Black American woman to win an individual Olympic gold in swimming and set an Olympic record and an American record. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she won a bronze medal as the anchor of the American 4×100-meter freestyle relay team.
Abbigail "Abbey" Weitzeil is an American competition swimmer specializing in sprint freestyle. A multiple time Olympic medalist, she won a gold medal in the 4x100-meter medley relay for swimming in the preliminary heats and a silver medal in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay at the 2016 Rio Olympics. At the 2020 Summer Olympics she won a silver medal in the 4x100-meter medley relay and a bronze medal in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay, swimming in the final of both events. She is the American record holder in the 50-yard freestyle and is part of the American Record in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay.
Michael Charles Andrew is an American competitive swimmer and an Olympic gold medalist. He was the 2016 world champion in the 100 meter individual medley. At his first Olympic Games, the 2020 Summer Olympics, he won a gold medal and set a world record as part of the 4x100 meter medley relay, placed fourth in the 100 meter breaststroke, fourth in the 50 meter freestyle, and fifth in the 200 meter individual medley. Andrew's swims in 2021 at the 2020 Olympics made him the first swimmer to represent the United States at an Olympic Games in an individual breaststroke event as well as another individual event other than an individual medley in the then-125-year-history of swimming at the Summer Olympics. He has won 78 medals at Swimming World Cup circuits.
Rikako Ikee is a Japanese competitive swimmer. She is the national record holder in the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly, and the junior world record holder in the 50-meter freestyle and 50-meter butterfly long-course events, and the 50- and 100-meter butterfly, and 100-meter individual medley in short course.
Regan Smith is an American competitive swimmer. She won 3 medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics and 5 medals at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She is the current world record holder in the long course 100-meter backstroke, world junior record holder in the women's long course 100-meter backstroke and 200-meter backstroke, and the former world record holder in the 200-meter backstroke.
Claire Curzan is an American competitive swimmer and Olympian. Specialising in multiple events, she earned an Olympic silver medal in the 4×100 meter medley relay in the 2020 Summer Olympics by swimming the preliminary butterfly leg. She holds junior world records in the long course 50 meter freestyle and 100 meter butterfly and the short course 50 meter butterfly and 100 meter butterfly. She also holds American records in the short course 50 meter backstroke and 50 meter butterfly, and formerly held the American record in the 100 yard butterfly. She currently swims for the Virginia Cavaliers.
Lydia Alice Jacoby is an American professional swimmer. She was the first Alaskan to qualify for an Olympic Games in swimming, competing at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, where she won the gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:04.95, which was the fastest time ever achieved by a female American swimmer in the event in the 17–18 age group. Later in the year, she was the overall highest scoring female American competitor at the 2021 FINA Swimming World Cup. In 2022, she became the fastest female American swimmer in history in the 100-yard breaststroke for the 17–18 age group with a national age group record time of 57.54 seconds. In 2023, she further lowered the record to a time of 57.45 seconds, then 57.29 seconds, and set a national age group record of 2:04.32 for the girls 17–18 age group in the 200-yard breaststroke. She is the 2023 NCAA Division I champion in the women's 100-yard breaststroke.
Victoria "Torri" Huske is an American competitive swimmer and the reigning Olympic champion in the 100-meter butterfly. She holds world records in two relays: the 4x100-meter medley and 4x100-meter mixed medley. She is the former American record holder in the 50- and 100-meter butterfly.
Gretchen Walsh is an American competitive swimmer and the world record holder in the 100 meter butterfly, 4×100 medley relay, and mixed gender 4×100 medley relay. She won the silver medal in the 100 meter butterfly at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where she also set the Olympic record in the 100 meter butterfly in the semifinals with a time of 55.38. She additionally holds one world junior record in the mixed gender 4×100 medley relay event, as well as American records in the 50 meter butterfly, 4×100 meter freestyle relay, 4×100 meter medley relay, 50 yard freestyle, 100 yard freestyle, 100 yard butterfly, 100 yard backstroke, 4×50 yard freestyle relay, 4×50 yard medley relay, 4×100 yard freestyle relay, and 4×100 yard medley relay.
Erin Gemmell is an American competitive swimmer. She is an American record holder in the short course 4×200 meter freestyle relay. In the 200 metre freestyle, she won the gold medal at the 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Championships and placed fourth at the 2022 World Short Course Championships. In the 400 meter freestyle, she won the gold medal at the 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Championships, the 2022 US National title, and placed sixth at the 2022 World Short Course Championships. For the 4×200 meter freestyle relay, she won a bronze medal at the 2022 World Short Course Championships as well as gold medals at the 2019 World Junior Championships and 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Championships, swimming on the finals relay at each competition. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Gemmell, along with Claire Weinstein, Katie Ledecky, and Paige Madden, won the silver medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay.