Summer Sanders

One of the more dominant female Olympic swimmers, Summer Sanders transitioned into a successful television personality following her gold medal triumph at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. Born on Oct. 13, 1972 in Roseville, CA, Sanders set her sights on competitive swimming from the time she was just four years old. While attending Oakmont High School, she just missed becoming a member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic team. Two years later, Sanders won three gold medals at the Goodwill Game in Seattle, WA, before kicking off a successful athletic career at Stanford University. In a mere two years at Stanford, she amassed six individual NCAA titles and four relay championships. Most important to her, however, was helping her team win the 1992 National Title, which she considered one of the greatest moments of her swimming career. She soon became part of Olympic history with an electrifying performance at the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona, where she won gold medals for the 200m butterfly and 400m medley relay. She also won a silver medal for the 200m individual medley and a bronze for the 400m individual medley.

Following her success in Barcelona, Sanders retired from competitive swimming to focus on becoming a sportscaster. She had her start as a commentator for CBS Sports while covering the NCAA Swimming Championships in 1992 and 1994. Sanders transitioned to other sports when she served as a reporter on the skiing show, "Bumps & Jumps" (CBS, 1993-94), which she followed by co-hosting the sports series "Sandblast" (MTV, 1994) during its debut season. After emerging from retirement in an unsuccessful attempt to join the 1996 Olympic team, she was a swim competition commentator for NBC during its coverage of the Games in Atlanta, GA. That same year, she made an appearance in "Jerry Maguire" (1996), before beginning a three-year stint as the host of "Figure It Out" (Nickelodeon, 1997-99), a kid's game show loosely adapted from "What's My Line?" In 1998, Sanders was named Special Ambassador for Sports for UNICEF, and emerged the next year with her first book, Champions Are Raised, Not Born: How My Parents Made Me A Success (1999).

Entering the new millennium, Sanders expanded her sports commentating to include the WNBA, serving as a sideline reporter for NBC's coverage of the popular female basketball league. She jumped over to the men's side to cover the "NBC on NBC," while serving as a reporter for the coverage of the U.S. Tennis Open. Sanders also took part in the 2002 Winter Olympics as an on-site reporter covering events from the Games in Salt Lake City, UT. She became more ubiquitous across the dial when became the host on programs like the syndicated "U.S. Olympic Gold" (2002-05), Fox Sports Net's "The List," NBA TV's "Mind, Body & Spirit," and the reality series "Beg, Borrow & Deal" (ESPN, 2002-03). Meanwhile, she became a special correspondent for "Today" (NBC, 1952- ), while moving up to the co-host position on "NBA Inside Stuff" (NBC/ABC/NBA TV 1990-2005) after serving as a special correspondent since 1997. After co-hosting the reality show "Skating With Celebrities" (Fox, 2006) and the "World's Greatest Sports Bloopers" (ABC, 2007), she joined the season nine cast of "Celebrity Apprentice" (NBC, 2003- ), competing with the likes of Sharon Osbourne, chef Curtis Stone, Sinbad, and disgraced former governor Rod Blagojevich.