I had to get up at the crack of dawn this morning to get some work done for our 1st quarter/2007 closing at work. I’m talking really early, like 5:00 a.m. ET. However, when I got my work done, I was able to get on the Internet and check out near-live postings of the results from the evening session of Day 3 of the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships in Melbourne, Australia. What I read just blew me away. Event after event, there were amazing swims, including no less than 4 individual gold medal performances by U.S. swimmers out of 5 finals (in the 5th race, the U.S. picked up a silver medal). There was also an additional world record set in the semifinal heats of the women’s 200-meter freestyle. Out of a total of 8 events in the evening session, there were 4 world records set. In 3 of the 5 finals (vs. semifinals), a world record was set. In the other 2 races, an American just missed breaking the oldest women's world record on the books, and another American woman set a new U.S. record. I’m not a statistician, but I can’t remember such a concentration of amazing performances in one 2-hour session of swimming. Here is how it went down.
Of course, you won’t be surprised that Michael Phelps got the ball rolling. Phelps is a huge talent and won 8 medals at each of the 2004 Olympics in Athens and the 2005 FINA World Championships in Montreal. So, you would expect him to dominate, especially in his “main” events, which include three events in which he entered this meet holding the world record: 200-meter butterfly; 200-meter individual medley; and, 400-meter individual medley. To be sure, he has posted some huge results in the men’s 200-meter freestyle and is the American record holder in that event. (Sarah and I saw him set a U.S. record in that event in 2003 at the Philips 66 U.S. Swimming Nationals in College Park.) But he had “only” managed a bronze in that race at the 2004 Olympics, and had faced stiff competition from former world record holder Ian Thorpe and the Netherlands’ Pieter van den Hoogenband. So, it may not have been a big upset, but it was not entirely expected either what happened today: Phelps, seeded second after semifinals to the Dutch star, became the first man to go under 1:44, snatching the gold medal and posting a new world record time of 1:43.86. He beat Thorpe’s former world record by .20.
Australia is the one place in the world where swimming is truly appreciated on a major league level. Just as an example, Ian Thorpe has for several years now (even in retirement) been one of the top sports personalities in the country. So, with these championships being staged in Melbourne before a crowd of almost 20,000 rabid swimming fans, Phelps’ swim probably caused this crowd to get really primed for some amazing swimming. When there is that much energy in a building, it is a sure bet the swimmers are going to feed off of it. No doubt, Phelps’ swim probably set the stage for what followed:
Thirteen minutes later, in the very next event, American Natalie Coughlin lowered her own world record in the 100-meter backstroke, taking the gold medal. She went 59.44, shaving .14 off her old mark of 59.58. Coughlin held off a strong challenge from France’s Laure Manaudou who had already won the gold medal in the women’s 400-meter freestyle.
26 minutes later, after 50-meter breastroke heats, American Kate Ziegler (from Arlington and Bishop O’Connell High School/George Mason University) won the gold in the grueling 1500-meter freestyle in 15:53.05, and coming within 1 second of Janet Evans’ 19-year old world record of 15:52.10.
Another 30 minutes later, Americans Aaron Piersol and Ryan Lochte went 1-2 in the men’s 100-meter backstroke, with Piersol becoming the first man in history under 53 seconds, breaking in 52:98, breaking his own world record of 53:17.
Eight minutes later, Federica Pelligrini of Italy broke a the world record in the women’s 200-meter freestyle semifinals, swimming 1:55.47, to take out the old mark of 1:55.64 set by Franziska van Almsick of Germany in 2002. American Katie Hoff and Dana Vollmer both made the finals of the 200-meter freestyle, which is shaping up to be one of the fastest women’s 200-meter events in history. Hoff's time of 1:57.29 broke the American record held by Olympic gold medalist Lindsay Benko.
There are still 5 full days of swimming left. It could be an historic week for swimming in Australia. Check out the results at the official FINA website (http://www.fina.org/events/WC/Melbourne_2007/results/swimming.php) and online at US Swimming’s web site (http://www.usswim.org/). You can also read the headlines (and pay a nominal fee to watch online video, if you like) at the WCSN web site: http://www.wcsn.com/sport/index.jsp?id=34001.
Finish strong,
Stan
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