LONDON – Four years later, Dana Vollmer has been set free. 

A stratospheric talent who crashed in the U.S. Olympic trials four years ago and missed the 2008 Beijing Games entirely, Vollmer seized gold in world-record fashion Sunday. The favorite in the 100-meter butterfly set Olympic and U.S. records in the event in her preliminary heat, then rewrote the world record Sunday night, finishing in 55.98 seconds.

It's a sweet victory that erases cruel memories of 2008, when Vollmer says she "crumbled" under expectations in the trials, finishing fifth in the 100-meter butterfly, seventh in the 200 freestyle, and missing the finals of the 50 and 100 free completely. Repeatedly beset by injuries, the tumble off the U.S. squad left a mental dent that took four years to repair -- leading to Sunday, when Vollmer summarily released four years of Olympic frustration.

"After 2008, it took me a little to make the transition to even know that I wanted to swim again," Vollmer said. "As soon as I decided that, [I knew] I did love the sport and I loved competing.

"I think it took not making '08 for me to realize I can do this a different way and that I need to change not only my mental approach to racing, but what I am doing for training."

Enter the warmth and exclusion of Fiji, where Vollmer was essentially stashed away by her University of California coach, Teri McKeever, for the entire 2008 Olympics. It was half rehabilitation and half witness protection -- to refresh Vollmer's love for her sport and to shield her from seeing what she may have missed in Beijing. A place where Vollmer could swim in the open ocean, including one open-water race, and let go of the feeling that she had disappointed those around her.

"We just felt like we needed to get her out of the United States and, for lack of a better way of putting it, her own pity party," McKeever said. "She doesn't even know what happened in the [2008] Olympics."