The Bahamian standout achieved the milestone in the 100 metres freestyle event at the Missouri Grand Prix, one of the 2007/2008 Toyota series held at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri February15-18, 2008.
Competing for Bolles School out of Jacksonville, Florida, she swam the 100 metres freestyle in the new Bahamian record time of 56.67 seconds for the Olympic 'B' standard qualifier.
Vanderpool-Wallace said that going into the race, she wasn't really expecting anything "I just wanted to see how fast I could swim in season....I just put my head down and pushed as hard as I could..
"Up until I called my parents and my brother to tell them the news, the experience was still surreal, and I was just waiting for someone to tell me that it was all a joke, but slowly the fact that I had actually swum that time set in and I got more and more excited.
"My goals are to try to make another Olympic cut and to work on swimming the best races that I am capable of. I am just excited to see what else I am capable of doing, " she said.
In what could have been a major disappointment for Bahamian swimming, the meet, the Missouri Grand Prix, was not listed nor registered as an official Olympic qualifying event. This would have meant that even though the qualifying time had been achieved, Vanderpool Wallace would have had to duplicate her performance at an official qualifier.
However, the BSF has informed that it "successfully lobbied the international federation, FINA, to officially recognise Ariamia' s time.
"We petitioned FINA, pointing out that there were world records set at the Missouri Grand Prix and surely, if these world records are recognised, then FINA should be able to recognize an Olympic qualifying time, particularly swum by a swimmer from the Caribbean, where there are not as many opportunities to compete in official Olympic qualifiers.
"We are overjoyed that the BSF's petition was successful and congratulate Arianna on her outstanding performance," said a press release.
Vanderpool-Wallace joins Jeremy Knowles as qualifiers for this year's Olympics in swimming.
In 2004, Nikia Deveaux became the first Bahamian female to qualify for the Olympics. She swam in Athens, Greece.
- Austin DWI - New York DWI