This summer the most elite athletes in the world were set to come together and battle against each other in the Tokyo Olympics. Instead, they’ll have to wait another year, while the world recovers from a battle of its own against the Coronavirus.

Dana Vollmer is a Syracuse native and a three-time Olympic swimmer who competed in 2004, 2012 and 2016. She currently lives in California, but took some time on Thursday morning to chat via Skype.

“This is not the time to focus on elite level performing,” said Vollmer. “It’s a time for our countries to be healing, then to also go to the athlete’s side where you worked for four years for something. Timing is everything. You schedule everything to peak right now.”

Vollmer would know about timing. At just 12-years-old, she was the youngest swimmer ever at the 2000 Olympic trials. By 16, she was standing on the podium in Athens with her first gold medal around her neck.

“You replay all the hard times, all the sacrifices, all the challenges and all of those moments that you dug down deeper than you thought you could and that it was worth it,” said Vollmer.

One of her most profound moments came in 2016. Just 17 months after giving birth to her first son Arlen, Vollmer competed and won a medal of each color in Rio.

“What makes me feel whole in being a mom had changed from when I was not a mom,” said Vollmer. “My favorite points of the day where when I would wake up and hold this newborn being. That was my top priority. My swimming career took a whole different approach."

By last year, the mother of two decided that at 31-years-old, after her 15-year career, it was time to retire from competitive swimming. On August 2, she raced for a final time in the U,S. nationals.

“A lot of emotions for my last swim; I had done a lot of work on my own priorities and what I want out of these next stages of life. What I’ve accomplished already in this sport, what my goals were in this sport and it boiled down to me chasing my next dream.”

That next dream for Vollmer, who’s also a motivational speaker, is Architecture. Now she’s working with a company called ELS that designs the world’s best aquatic centers.