Height 1.68 m Weight 66 kg | Club Gator Swim Club (USA) Name Janelle Atkinson | |
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Full name Janelle Anya Monique Atkinson-Wignall College team | ||
Emily at 13 smashes jamaican national 13 14 100m fly lc record previously held by janelle atkinson
Janelle Anya Monique Atkinson-Wignall (born 30 September 1982), née Janelle Anya Monique Atkinson, is a Jamaican former competitive swimmer who won three silver medals at the 1999 Pan American Games. She is currently the head women's swimming coach at Stony Brook University.
Contents
- Emily at 13 smashes jamaican national 13 14 100m fly lc record previously held by janelle atkinson
- Early years
- International career
- College career
- Coaching
- References
Early years
Atkinson was born in Saint Andrew, Surrey, Jamaica in 1982.
International career
At the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Atkinson was a three-time silver medalist, finishing third in each of the 200-, 400- and 800-metre freestyle events. Atkinson represented Jamaica at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, where she finished fourth in the 400-metre freestyle and ninth in the 800-metre freestyle. Atkinson won a pair of bronze medals in the 400-metre freestyle and 800-metre freestyle at the 2002 Commonwealth Games held in Manchester, England. She also competed in the 200-metre freestyle and 400-metre freestyle for the Jamaican team at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. She was named Jamaica's Swimmer of the Year seven consecutive times from 1997 to 2003. Contrary to popular belief, Janelle is not related to Alia Atkinson who coincidentally is also a Jamaican swimmer.
College career
She attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where she swam for coach Gregg Troy's Florida Gators swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition from 2001 to 2004. As a Gator swimmer, Atkinson won three Southeastern Conference (SEC) championships (twice in the 500-yard freestyle and once in the 1,650-yard freestyle), and received ten All-American honors. She graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in tourism and hospitality management in 2005.
Coaching
In 2014, Atkinson became the head coach of Swimming and Diving at Fairfield University. Before going to Fairfield, she was an assistant swimming coach for the UConn Huskies women's swimming and diving team at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut. For the four years prior to accepting the UConn job, she served as an assistant swimming coach at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She also served as the head coach of the Jamaican women's national team at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships.