Anita Nall

Nadia Anita Nall (born July 1976 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), more familiarly known as Anita Nall and now Anita Nall-Richesson since her marriage to Luke Richesson in 2002, is a U.S. Olympic medalist in competitive swimming. As a 16-year old at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, Nall won a gold medal in Women's 4x100 m Medley Relay, a silver medal in Women's 100 m Breaststroke, and a bronze in Women's 200 m Breaststroke.cite news|author=Frederick N. Rasmussen|title=Olympian Anita Nall|work=The Baltimore Sun|date=2007-10-13|url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_county/bal-md.whatever13oct13,0,5718146.story?coll=bal_news_local_baltimore_county_util |accessdate=2008-01-23 ] Earlier that year, she set a then-world record time in the Women's 200 m Breaststroke, as a 15-year old at the Olympic trials in Indianapolis, Indiana.cite news|author=Frank Litsky|title=Swimming; Day of Records for 15-Year-Old|work=The New York Times|date=1992-03-03|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE6D8143FF930A35750C0A964958260
accessdate=2008-01-27 ] [cite web|title=Women's American and World swimming records progression|publisher=USA Swimming|url=http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/_Rainbow/Documents/f0e6f08b-7455-44d9-99f9-b276075959dd/Jan%208%20LCM%20Women.pdf|accessdate=2008-01-23 ] cite news|author=Andy Hyland|title=St. Pius athlete Luke Richesson married Anita Nall, winner of three Olympic medals|work=The Kansas City Star|date=2007-02-03|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-29497979_ITM |accessdate=2008-01-23 ]

Nall is named after record-setting gymnast Nadia Comaneci, who competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics as a 14-year old, the year Nall was born. [cite news|author=William A. Henry III|title=Swimming A Bigger Splash|publisher="Time" magazine|date=1992-07-27|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,976108-1,00.html |accessdate=2008-01-23 ] As a girl, Nall moved with her family to Towson, Maryland. She trained in the late 1980s and early 1990s at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, the same place where another Towson teen swimming sensation, Michael Phelps, trained a decade later and who, like Nall, would set a world swimming record at age 15 (in the 200 m butterfly). [cite news|author=Paul McMullen|title=High-water mark in NBAC's history|work=The Baltimore Sun|date=2004-07-09|url=http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/features/bal-sp.swimside09jul09,0,2982616.story |accessdate=2008-01-23 ] [cite news |author=Paul McMullen |title=Phelps marks his time Swimming: Towson High's Michael Phelps now counts a butterfly world record, as well as his participation in the 2000 Olympics, as his biggest thrills |work=The Baltimore Sun|date=2001-05-09 |url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/baltsun/access/72658167.html?dids=72658167:72658167&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT |accessdate=2008-01-26 ] Murray Stephens, her coach at the North Baltimore Athletic Club, said of Nall after she broke the world record at the 1992 Olympic trials, "Physically she's a strong girl. Competitively, she's probably 25. She knows how to compete and she likes to compete. She likes to swim aggressively."

Nall's specialty at the 1992 Summer Olympics was the breaststroke. She made the U.S. Olympic team that year as a 15-year old, the youngest swimmer on the U.S. Olympics women's team.cite news|author=Patricia Lear|title=A Tale of Two Swimmers|date=1992-07-12|work=The New York Times|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE3DD1F3AF931A25754C0A964958260 |accessdate=2008-01-23 ] The head coach of Northwestern University's women's swim team was quoted just prior to the Olympics that year as saying, "Anita has technically a perfect breaststroke." The breaststroke is very much a lower body stroke where you really use your legs. She uses her body perfectly and gets the most out of her stroke technique-wise". Nall went on to swim the breaststroke leg of the 4x100m medley relay at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, winning the team gold medal and becoming the youngest American gold medalist in swimming since 1976.

The next year, Nall's swimming faltered, attributed to chronic fatigue syndrome and blood pressure abnormalities. She retired from swimming in 2000, after failing to qualify for the 2000 U.S. Olympics team. [cite web|title=U.S. Swim Trials Notebook—Former teen phenom Nall pulls out of trials to retire|date=2000-08-13|work=CNN Sports Illustrated|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/news/2000/08/13/usswim_trials_notebook_ap/ |accessdate=2008-01-23 ]

Nall graduated from Towson Catholic High School in 1994 and then earned a Bachelor's degree in communications and Spanish at Arizona State University, graduating in 2002. That same year, she married former University of Kansas football player Luke Richesson. They currently reside in Phoenix, Arizona and have two children, son Luther (b. 2003) and daughter Sunny (b. 2005). Nall attributes her past health problems to food sensitivities affecting her immune system, which went undiagnosed until 2005, combined with poor nutrition. She is now a holistic nutrition specialist and Certified Life Coach with her own business.

The "Baltimore Sun" reported that Nall expects to be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2008.

References

External links

* [http://www.corporateartists.com/speaker_anita_nall.html Official website]