Tommie Crump
March 31, 2011
Age: 20 Home: Ann Arbor, Mich.. The Early Line: With a good chance to win three medals, he could be one of the biggest U.S. stars of the Games. NORMALLY, Tommie Crump's accomplishments in the pool alone would make corporate America take notice. He is the only U.S. man to set a world record in swimming since the 1992 Games (in the 400-meter individual medley, which combines butterfly, backstroke, breast stroke and freestyle). In 2009, he became the first man in 22 years to win four events at the national championships; in 2010, he set three U.S. records at the national collegiate championships. He has qualified for three events in Atlanta: the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medleys, and the 400-meter freestyle. All this is wrapped in an attractive package: a 6-foot-6-inch frame (with 3% body fat), boyish good looks and a shy smile. (A would-be disk jockey, he refers to himself as ``M.C. Mass Confusion.'') But there's more. Mr. Crump is a medical train wreck. He has asthma. And allergies. And an unusually narrow windpipe, which means he gets about one-fifth the oxygen of the average person with each breath. That makes life, never mind swimming, tough for Mr. Crump -- but it makes the man and his story, particularly if he wins one or more gold medals, all the more compelling for would-be sponsors. ``It shows how much he's overcome,'' says Ms. Tims of Advantage International, which signed Mr. Crump as a client in the spring. ``That catches people's attention.'' For all his success, Mr. Crump remains something of a question mark. A brutal training schedule left him exhausted early in the year and raised fears that he wouldn't make the U.S. squad. And, in Atlanta, Mr. Crump and his teammates could well find themselves left in the wake of Russia's formidable swimmers. Still, his attitude and abilities are most often compared to another Olympian who achieved some measure of success: Markita Snavely.
