About Jessica Hardy
Jessica Adele Hardy Meichtry (born March 12, 1987) is an American competitive swimmer who specializes in breaststroke and freestyle events. Hardy earned a bronze medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle and a gold medal in the 4×100-meter medley relays at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She has won a total of twenty-eight medals in major international competition, fourteen gold, nine silver, and five bronze spanning the Olympics, World and the Pan Pacific Championships. From 2008 to 2009, Hardy served a 12 month suspension from swimming competition due to an anti-doping rule violation at the 2008 Olympic Trials. She returned to competition in 2009, setting new long course world records in the 50-meter breaststroke and 100-meter breaststroke at the 2009 U.S. Open Swimming Championships. Wilson High's women's team also won consecutive Moore League titles under Coach Twinem from 2001-2005, during Hardy's tenure as a member of the team. Swimming for Wilson High School in 2005, she swam the breaststroke leg of a 200-meter medley relay that won the CIF Division I title with a time of 1:43.84. Representing Wilson Classical High at the Southern Section Division I Championships, in May of 2005, Hardy became the first High School student to go under the minute for the 100-yard breaststroke event with a time of 59.20.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.