Swimmer Claire Donahue is the first person to win an Olympic gold medal from Western Kentucky University, and today she told the WKU freshmen class how she was able to accomplish her dreams.

"When I was ten I told my parents that's what I wanted to do, I was going to go to the Olympics. They and my coach told me it's going to take a lot of hard work, you can't just go," said Donahue.

Donahue swam in the 100 meter butterfly finals at the 2012 London games, but didn't medal, she swam in the 4x100 individual medley relay and won gold.

Like her perseverance in London, her whole journey has been about working harder.

"Even when I didn't want to do it, I did it. When I didn't want to go to practice I went, and when I didn't want to do the work in class I pushed myself beyond that and did it," said Donahue.

She delivered her speech to the freshmen class at WKU this evening in Diddle arena.

"I was a swimmer in high school and the fact that she went to the Olympics as a swimmer was really cool for me. I really didn't know who she was until the Olympics, and then i realized that's my future school, and i was pretty excited about it," said freshman Shannon Kinney.

Donahue's an example of what she preached, working toward your goals.

"Whatever you're passionate about, take advantage of those opportunities you have with those areas, and use it to the best of your ability," said Donahue.

While she talked the class of 2016 about achieving goals, Donahue's got a few more of her own to go after that same year in Rio De Janeiro.