Jessica Deglau was a member of the Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 Olympic

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 Team in swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

 in the 1996

1996 Summer Olympics

The 1996 Summer Olympics of Atlanta, officially known as the Games of the XXVI Olympiad and unofficially known as the Centennial Olympics, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States....

 and 2000 Olympic Games

2000 Summer Olympics

The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

. In addition to swimming on the national team, she swam for and graduated from the University of British Columbia

University of British Columbia

The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...

.

The Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

 resident first broke the Canadian record in the 200 meter butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 at the 1996 Olympics clocking 2:11.68 for sixth spot and bettered it two years later at the world championships, again finishing sixth.

However in the 200 fly at the 1999 Pan American Games

1999 Pan American Games

The 1999 Pan American Games, officially the XIII Pan American Games or the 13th Pan American Games, was a major international multi-sport event that was held from July 23-August 8, 1999 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Approximately 5,000 athletes from 42 nations participated at the games. The 1999...

 Deglau went under the magic 2:10 barrier clocking 2:09.64, a time that would have earned her the silver medal at the 1996 Games and a bronze at the 1998 worlds. It was the second fastest time in the world in 1999 behind Australian world and Olympic champion Susie O'Neill's 2:07.35.

Deglau won the 1996 Elaine Tanner

Elaine Tanner

Elaine Tanner-Watt, OC is a retired Canadian swimmer.-Career:Nicknamed "Mighty Mouse" partly because of her small stature and partly due to her competitive drive, Tanner had a large impact on Canadian swimming and is considered one of the top performers in the sport.During the 1966 Commonwealth...

 Award, presented annually to Canada's outstanding junior female athlete. She also won a 2003 Sport BC Athlete of the Year Award and a 2003 Premier’s Athletic Award for swimming as an outstanding British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 athlete, and was honored as "one of the greatest swimmers in CIS

Canadian Interuniversity Sport

Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is The Canadian Colleges Athletic Association...

 history." During her collegiate swimming career she amassed a total of 29 medals, the highest total in the history of UBC. Deglau was chosen CIS Female Swimmer of the Year in 1998-1999 and 1999-2000.

Jessica Deglau is a distant relative of prominent photographer Terry Deglau

Terry Deglau

Terry Deglau is the portrait photographer chosen by the United Nations to take the group photo of the world's leaders at the 2000 United Nations Millennium Project in New York. He had done a similar photograph for the UN's 50th anniversary celebration in 1995, and has done portraits of five U.S...

.