With all the world (deservedly) gushing over Michael Phelps and his 22 Olympic medals, lest not the Bay Area community forget about Cal graduate, Nathan Adrian.
Adrian finished first in his freestyle portion of the 4x100 medley relay team Saturday night, leading him to the top of the podium with his three teammates, all of whom received gold medals.
Japan came in second, and Australia took the bronze.
Saturday's medal in the relay as the anchor gives Adrian to his third Olympic medal in London: He won another gold in the 100-meter freestyle and a silver in the 400-meter freestyle relay.
The accomplishment highlights a career that has been taking off since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when the 23-year-old won gold as part of the 400-meter freestyle relay team. In those games, though, he did not swim in the finals - those spots were taken by Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones and Jason Lezak.
A year later, however, Adrian found himself swimming the anchor leg in the same race at the 2009 World Championships,. a race the squad won after Adrian chased down French speedster Frederick Bousquet. The performance was similar to that of Lezak during Beijing. He also won gold as part of the 400m medley relay team after swimming in the heats.
Adrian was born in Bremerton, Wash., and now lives in Berkeley, where he trains with Coach Mike Bottom. According to his profile, Adrian's mother, Cecilia, is Chinese and born and raised in Hong Kong. His middle name in Chinese roughly equates to "little pony." He has an older sister, Donella, who swam at Arizona State University, and a brother, Justine, who swam at Washington.
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Adrian's nickname is "Bok Choi," given to him by girls on a swim team after they discovered his Asian heritage.
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