Nothing ever goes as planned, but it’s how you react to the unexpected that everyone remembers.  With that in mind, the Long Beach Century Club has selected its Athlete of the Year for 2009, and it’s former Wilson Bruin Jessica Hardy. She will be recognized at the Century Club Sports Banquet on February 9th after the most tumultuous year of her life, or as Club member Bill Baca put it, “due to the fact that she has risen out of the ashes like a phoenix after being suspended.”  Hardy was on her way to the Olympics when a positive drug test got her suspended, even though it’s becoming clear that the company that provided her with the tainted supplement is to blame.  Since then, she has worked to reinvent herself and returned to the pool faster and better than ever before, helping the US team set a record 4x100m medley relay. Her untiring efforts to clear her name and to prove to the aquatics world that she is the real deal is an inspiring story.  Hardy will have a hearing regarding the suspension in March.

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