Abbey Weitzeil

Abbigail "Abbey" Weitzeil (born December 3, 1996) is an American competition swimmer specializing in sprint freestyle.

At the Pan Pacific Championships, her first international swimming competition, Weitzeil finished 10th in the 100-meter free.

She also won silver as a member of the 400-meter free relay alongside Simone Manuel, Missy Franklin, and Shannon Vreeland, splitting 53.81 seconds on her leg.

At the 2014 Speedo Winter Junior National Championships in Federal Way, Washington, Weitzeil set the American Record in the 100-yard freestyle.

Her record time of 46.29 bested the previous record held by Simone Manuel by 0.33.

She set the record while swimming lead off for Canyons Aquatic Club's 4x100 Freestyle relay.

At the 2014 Phillips 66 Nationals, the selection meet for the 2014 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships and 2015 World Championships, Weitzeil qualified for both meets by finishing fifth in the 50-meter freestyle and fourth in the 100-meter freestyle.

Later that year, Weitzeil went on to win one gold and two silver medals at the 2014 World Short Course Championships.

At the 2015 World Championships, she won a gold medal in the 4x100-meter mixed freestyle relay and a bronze in 4x100-meter freestyle relay.

She swam in the preliminary heats for both relays.

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.

Weitzeil attended University of California, Berkeley from 2016 to 2020 and swam collegiately for the California Golden Bears.

In her senior year at California, Weitzeil was the winner of the Honda Sports Award, given to the nation's top female collegiate competitor in swimming and diving.

At the 2016 American Short Course Championships in Austin, Texas Weitzeil set the American Record in the 50 yard Freestyle with a time of 21.12.

The previous record held by Lara Jackson was a 21.27 and was set during the "super suit" era.

Weitzeil qualified for her first Olympics by sweeping both the 50- and the 100-meter freestyles at the 2016 US Olympic trials.

In the 100-meter freestyle, she won with a time of 53.28 seconds, 24 hundredths of a second ahead of second-place finisher Simone Manuel.

She also finished first in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 24.28.

On the first night of the swimming portion at the Olympics, she won a silver medal as part of the 4×100-meter freestyle relay along with Manuel, Dana Vollmer, and Katie Ledecky in 3:31.89, which was a new American Record.

Her split of 52.56 was the fastest among her team.

She also swam in the preliminary heats of the 4x100-meter medley relay and received a gold medal when the team won in the finals.

In her individual events, Weitzeil finished seventh in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 53.30 and missed qualifying for the final of the 50-meter freestyle.

Weitzeil became the 17th teenager to hold the record in that event.

This was the first American Record ever set at a Junior National event.

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.

Weitzeil grew up in Santa Clarita, California.

She attended Saugus High School, where she was a four-time CIF Champion in swimming and set national records in the 50 yard and 100 yard freestyle.

When the COVID-19 pandemic briefly resulted in the 2020 Summer Olympics being cancelled before venues could be secured for July 2021, Weitzeil did not stop her training.

She commuted to different pools that were open to remain on track for the Olympics which ended up being postponed to 2021.

Weitzeil made the US Olympic swim team in two individual events for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter freestyle.

She also made the team in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay.

On day two of competition, Weitzeil swam in the final of the 4x100-meter freestyle relay, spitting the fastest 100-meter swim of any of the swimmers on the American relay with a 52.68.

She and her relay teammates won the bronze medal with a relay time of 3:32.81 in the final.

Weitzeil became the first University of California, Berkeley athlete to win a medal at the 2020 Olympics in any sport.

In her first individual race at the 2020 Olympics, the prelims of the 100-meter freestyle on day five of competition, Weitzeil ranked eleventh for all prelims heats with her time of 53.21 and advanced to the semifinals.

In the semifinals of the event, Weitzeil lowered her time to a 52.99 and qualified for the final ranked seventh overall.

Weitzeil swam the freestyle leg of the 4x100-meter mixed medley relay in the prelims heats on day six, participating in the first swimming race in the history of the Olympic Games that men and women competed in the same event.

She helped the relay finish ranked second overall and advance to the final.

In the final of the 100-meter freestyle on day seven, Weitzeil placed eighth.