Background
Donahue was born January 12, 1989 to Christopher and Connie Donahue in Dallas, Texas. As a young child, her family moved to Lenoir City, Tennessee, where she grew up.
Donahue was born January 12, 1989 to Christopher and Connie Donahue in Dallas, Texas. As a young child, her family moved to Lenoir City, Tennessee, where she grew up.
She has three siblings (Audrey, Zack, and Dean), and graduated from Lenoir City High School. After high school, she attended Western Kentucky University.
She earned a gold medal for swimming in the preliminary heats of the 4×100-meter medley relay at the 2012 Summer Olympics. In high school, she was a four-year letterwinner in swimming, a three-year letterwinner in track and field, and a two-year letterwinner in cross country running. In her first year, she broke the school record in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly.
She was a letterwinner all four years of her college career, setting five school records in the process.
As a senior, she was named "2011 WKU Student Athlete of the Year." Donahue graduated from WKU with a Bachelor of Science in social work in May 2011. Donahue qualified for the 2008 Olympic Trials in the 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly, but did not advance out of the opening round in either event.
In 2010, Donahue finished fourth in the 100-yard butterfly at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships. In 2011, she finished second at the Championships in the same event.
At the 2011 National Championships, she took second place in 100-meter butterfly and 11th in the 200-meter butterfly.
At the 2012 Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, the United States. qualifying event for the Olympics, Donahue turned in a new personal best in the 100-meter butterfly finals clocking a time of 57.57. "lieutenant feels unbelievable to make it to the 2012 Olympics," she remarked. "When I finished and saw that I was second, I did not even know what to think.
At first I didn"t believe lieutenant" She also competed in the 200-meter butterfly, where she failed to advance past the opening round.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, she turned in a personal best time of 57.42 seconds during the semi-finals of the 100-meter butterfly and advanced to the finals. In the finals, she swam the race in 57.48 en route to a seventh-place finish.
"My goal was actually just to get in the finals, and once I got that it was just kind of icing on the cake being able to compete in the finals", she remarked. "So I"m thrilled. I"m so happy with how I"ve done." Later at the games, she swam the butterfly leg of the 4×100-meter medley relay for the United States. team during the preliminary heats.
Donahue is coached by WKU head coach Bruce Marchionda.