Dana Vollmer made history on Sunday when she not only won the gold medal in the 100 meter women’s butterfly, but set a world record at 55.98 seconds.  After not even qualifying for the last Summer Olympics in Beijing, her stellar turnaround has drawn attention to one very important decision she made a year ago in terms of her diet: going gluten-free.

After overcoming two heart defects as teen, Vollmer still constantly suffered from back pains from previous injuries and frequent debilitating stomach pains. The doctors weren’t able to pinpoint what the cause of it was, and her family thought they were caused by either nerves or lactic acid build up. But they were both wrong. Vollmer was actually extremely sensitive to gluten.

After cutting out gluten from her diet, Vollmer is stronger, healthier and no longer suffers from the stomach pains she used to endure so frequently. Instead of loading up on carbs before swimming like she used to, she tweeted that the meal that won her the race on Sunday was “rice w/almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds, peanut butter and milk!”

And, she loves Nogii bars! Yesterday, we had this exchange on Twitter:

I am so proud of this G-Free athlete and her journey to the gold medal!

Do you know of any other inspiring G-Free success stories?