MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – Former Penn State women's swimmer Melissa Rodriguez was named to the Mexican Olympic Women's Swimming team as announced Friday and will compete in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events. The Mexican national record holder in the long-course 50, 100 and 200 breaststroke, Rodriguez competed in the NCAA Championships all four years of her career as a Nittany Lion and earned honorable-mention All-America honors.
Rodriguez set Penn State's 200 breaststroke record (2:07.80) with her 11th-place finish at the 2016 NCAA Championships, cutting nearly four seconds off the previous best mark. Her 100 breaststroke time is fourth all-time on the Nittany Lion list and she swam the breaststroke leg of the 400 medley relay team that held the program record from 2014-20.
From Chihuahua, Mexico, Rodriguez becomes the second women's swimmer to represent Penn State in the Olympic Games and third Nittany Lion, following Jane Barkman Brown, a two-time gold medalist as a member of the 4x100 freestyle relays in the 1968 (Mexico City) and 1972 (Munich) Olympic Games, and two-time bronze medal-winning diver Mary Ellen Clark (1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta).
The 2020 Olympic Games, which were postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, begin Friday, July 23. The heats for the 100 and 200 breaststroke are scheduled for Sunday, July 25, and Wednesday, July 28, respectively, in the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
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