Two-time Olympic champion Crissy Perham donated her kidney to save the life of Missy Franklin's father, swimmer calls the incident a 'miracle'

As the 2024 Paris Olympics approach, the story of former US swimmer Crissy Perham (M. Ahmann-Leighton) donating a kidney to fellow former swimmer Missy Franklin's father Dick Franklin has surfaced. Franklin has five Olympic medals and held the 4×100-meter medley relay world record, while Perham won three medals at the 1992 Games.

Missy Franklin, 29, made her Olympic debut in 2012 in London, where she won five medals, out of which four were gold. Her stellar achievements in 2012 earned her the American Swimmer of the Year award and Swimming World's World Swimmer of the Year title. Having bagged the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year in 2014, Franklin retired from the sport in 2018.

Four years after her retirement, her father, Dick Franklin, was awaiting a kidney transplant surgery and looking for a donor in 2022. Franklin's mother, D.A. Franklin, took to Facebook to seek a donor.

Crissy Perham, previously Crissy M. Ahmann-Leighton, three-time Olympic medalist at the 1992 Olympic Games, saw the post and felt she was healthy enough to undergo a surgery and donate her kidney.

“I see this post and think, I’m so healthy, I’m not creeped out by surgery, I’m not going to have any more kids, I can do this," Perham shared (via USA Today).

Perham dropped a message to Franklin's mother, willing to check if she was a match. The match was confirmed at the end of July that year, and the Franklin family's excitement knew no bounds, especially Missy's, who felt Crissy's emergence to be a 'miracle'.

"I don’t think I talked for two minutes which for me is pretty much a lifetime. I did not know who Crissy was because she was a little bit before my time. She was anonymous at first. We just found out that my dad had a match. That in and of itself was a miracle," she shared (via USA Today).

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Missy Franklin - "I didn’t know how I was going to make a living"

Missy Franklin retired in 2018 in the wake of an injury. But she was not sure of what was to come next. In an interview, she shared that her career after retirement was uncertain since she was invested in swimming all her life.

"I literally thought that once I was done swimming, I didn’t know how I was going to make a living," she said (via The Athletic).

She added:

"And so now, the fact that I’m able to make a living and contribute to our family, financially and emotionally, and I’m still able to be there for my daughter every second of every day while doing what I love — it’s like it all just is utterly a dream come true."

Since her retirement, Franklin has been working as the principal spokesperson of 'Saving Lives Is Always In Season' and an ambassador for the USA Swimming Foundation.