5-month pregnant champion swimmer to join pro race

Dana Vollmer arrives to the 2016 Golden Goggles Awards at the Marriott Marquis Hotel on November 21, 2016 in New York City. AFP FILE PHOTO

Five-time Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Dana Vollmer isn’t letting her latest pregnancy slow her down.

The 29-year-old American, expecting her second child in July, says she’ll enter the 50m freestyle at the Pro Swim Series event in Mesa, Arizona, next month, according to a post on her Instagram account.

“Started having dreams about being at competitions!!” her post said. “It’s been too long! So I’ve decided to enter the Mesa Arena Pro Swim Series and swim a 50free!!”

Vollmer, whose Olympic gold medals include individual gold in the 100m butterfly in London in 2012, took almost two years off from competition when she had her first child, son Arlen, on March 6, 2015.

She returned to competition and took her Olympic medal haul to seven at last year’s Rio Games, where she helped the United States win 4x100m medley relay gold and also won a silver and a bronze.