GRANBURY -- The drive down U.S. Highway 377 through the middle of Granbury is a tip-off.
Signs at businesses on either side of the road extend congratulations and trumpet their pride in her achievements. Electronic billboards flash images of that winning smile, and a hunk of gold she brought back from a summer in London.Olympic champion swimmer Dana Vollmer came home to a hero's welcome on Saturday, her first visit to Granbury in nearly a year, and less than a month after winning three gold medals and setting an individual world record at the 2012 Olympic Games."It's one thing to win a gold medal and the excitement that comes with that," Vollmer said Saturday. "But it's something else to see what it does for other people."It literally brought some to tears.Saturday's planned parade through the downtown square and a finish at the city park, home to the Dana Vollmer Municipal Swim Center, was abandoned because, of all things, water. Rain and a threat of more moved Vollmer's tribute inside the Granbury Resort Conference Center, where hundreds of spectators, friends and Granbury Seals swim team faithful watched Vollmer be handed official proclamations as if they were housewarming gifts.Vollmer, 24, told the crowd of her journey growing up in the small community 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth. Her talent, competitive desire and lack of a suitable local pool, landed her, as an 11-year-old, with the Fort Worth Area Swim Team and coach Ron Forrest. At age 12 she became the youngest competitor in the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials.At age 16, she would qualify for the 2004 Games in Athens and was on the gold medal-winning 4x200 freestyle relay team that set a world record.But over the next four years, severe injuries took a toll. At the Olympic trials in '08, she came up three-hundredths of a second short of qualifying for Beijing."I don't think I fully appreciated what I was able to do at 16," she said. "I was constantly rehabbing and I wasn't enjoying swimming very much."That disappointment led to changes, including the elimination of gluten and eggs from her diet, alternative training methods and rediscovering her love for swimming. After Vollmer qualified for London, she felt confident enough emotionally and physically to voice her expectations of being the first woman ever to go faster than 56 seconds in the 100 butterfly. And she did, clocking in at 55.98.So with her Olympic success, a marriage less than a year old -- to former Stanford swimmer Andy Grant -- and the Rio de Janeiro Games a full four years away, could Vollmer's days in the pool be coming to an end?"I'll be ready for Rio," she said. "I already know I'm faster than I was in London. That [world record-setting] swim wasn't the perfect swim. I know I can be faster."Granbury Mayor Pro Tem Mickey Parson would not be surprised by another parade, even if it's not for Vollmer. "We hope today some child here is inspired to be a hero."Stephen Schroats817-390-7086Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
