Tom Dolan

Tom Dolan was born on September 15, 1975 in Arlington, Virginia. His father, William, is a civil trial attorney and his mother, Jef, is a communications professor at Marymount University. Dolan was active in a variety of sports when he was a child, including soccer, basketball, golf, and tennis. He became interested in swimming at age five when he noticed that his older sister, Kathleen, was really involved in the sport.

Dolan began swimming competitively at the Washington Golf and Country Club in Arlington when he was seven years old. He was a fierce competitor who would push his body to its limit. He began competing in the breast stroke; however, he would sometimes have trouble

Tom Dolan

breathing in this position. Rather than stop swimming, Dolan would simply flip onto his back and continue swimming the backstroke because it allowed him to breathe more easily. When Dolan was fourteen, his doctors diagnosed him with exercise-induced asthma and allergies.

Despite this diagnosis Dolan continued to compete in club-team swimming along with his sister. He began training with coach Rick Curl at the Curl-Burke Swim Club. Curl was the coach of the 1992 Olympic gold medallist swimmer Mike Barrowman. Dolan graduated with honors from Yorktown High School. He then went to college at the University of Michigan in 1993 where he won a swimming scholarship.