REWRITING A WRONG U.S. ERASES LAST TAINTED EAST GERMAN RECORD.Byline: Paul Oberjuerge Staff Writer ATHENS, Greece - Four American women wiped out swimming's oldest and ugliest world record, and Michael Phelps For the American biophysicist, see . Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American swimmer and World Record Holder in several events. made a splash even without swimming a final at the Olympic Aquatic Center on Wednesday. The relay quartet of Natalie Coughlin Natalie Anne Coughlin (born August 23, 1982 in Vallejo, California) is a United States swimmer and represented the United States at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she won two gold medals, two silver medals, and a bronze. , Carly Piper Carly Piper (born September 23, 1983 in Detroit, Michigan, United States) is a swimmer in the United States. She won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay with Natalie Coughlin, Kaitlin Sandeno, and Dana Vollmer that set the , Dana Vollmer Dana Vollmer (born November 13, 1987 in Syracuse, New York) is an American swimmer who presently competes at the college level at Cal-Berkeley. Though born in New York, she was raised in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex suburb of Granbury, Texas. and USC's Kaitlin Sandeno Kaitlin Shea Sandeno (born March 13, 1983 in Mission Viejo, California) is an American swimmer, and was part of the team that set the world record in the 4x200 m freestyle relay at the 2004 Summer Olympics. ripped more than two seconds off the women's 800-meter freestyle relay world record with a time of 7 minutes, 53.42 seconds. Phelps set an Olympic record Olympic Records are the best performances in a specific event in that event's history in either the Summer Olympic Games or the Winter Olympic Games. As the Olympics occur only once every four years, many of these records do not correspond with world records, though they are in qualifying first for today's 200 individual medley, recording a time of 1:58.52 before hurrying out of the noisy venue for what he hoped was a long and restful rest·ful adj. 1. Affording, marked by, or suggesting rest; tranquil. See Synonyms at comfortable. 2. Being at rest; quiet. rest night - the only one during the Athens Olympics Athens Olympics
Olympic Games • swim meet in which he is not scheduled to compete in a final. The American women not only earned gold for their 800 relay effort, they knocked out the last world record held by the drug-tainted East German women's swim team - a time of 7:55.47 recorded in 1987. ``That record burned people raw,'' U.S. women's coach Mark Schubert Mark Schubert was the head coach for both the University of Southern California men's and women's swim teams. He previously coached at the University of Texas from 1989 to 1992 where he coached NCAA champions such as Lee Ann Fetter and Whitney Hedgepeth [1] . said. ``We all know the reason, and we're very proud to have that record back.'' Said assistant coach Bob Bowman Bob Bowman refers to
Coughlin gave the Americans a body-length lead after her 200-meter leg, and Piper, Vollmer and Sandeno held it. The swimmers, none of whom have first-hand memories of the East German women's steroid-puffed exploits, said they weren't surprised at their record time. ``We knew coming into this meet we were able to do it by performing well,'' Coughlin said. ``We just had to get the job actually done.'' ``We expected this, absolutely,'' Schubert said. ``The way everybody is swimming ... And Natalie Coughlin, I have to give her a lot of credit. She gave up individual events for this relay and came up with her best performance by far in the meet. Kaitlin was lights out, and so was Carly, and Dana Vollmer had her best time. ``It was pretty easy to do the math.'' Coughlin swam a sizzling siz·zle intr.v. siz·zled, siz·zling, siz·zles 1. To make the hissing sound characteristic of frying fat. 2. To seethe with anger or indignation. 3. 1:57.74 leg, just .33 off Lindsay Benko's national record, coming home strongly after a slow start. ``That was the plan,'' Schubert said. ``I wasn't worried. Much.'' The relay gold An earlier communications program that supported modem transmission and mainframe file transfer. Originally developed by Microcom, it was marketed by Relay Technology until the company was acquired in the late 1990s by NetManage. was the only bright spot for the U.S. team in the four finals Wednesday. World-record holder Brendan Hansen settled for bronze in the 200 breaststroke, finishing more than a second behind gold medalist Kosuke Kitajima of Japan and Daniel Gyurta of Hungary. Hansen said the U.S. Trials in Long Beach last month were too close to the Olympics for him to regain his edge. ``I'm disappointed that I have the record and not the (gold) medal,'' he said. ``It's unfortunate that the run-up to the Olympics took something out of me.'' He also complained of the ``pressure'' of being a favorite in the event. The Americans didn't have a swimmer in the men's 100 freestyle, a historical rarity, and world-record holder Pieter van den Hoogenband Pieter Cornelis Martijn van den Hoogenband (born March 14, 1978 in Maastricht) is a Dutch swimmer and a triple Olympic champion. He is the current world record holder in 100 m freestyle swimming (47.84s). of Holland won the race in 48.17, just ahead of South African relay hero Roland Schoeman and Australia's Ian Thorpe. Sandeno, the top qualifier in the women's 200 butterfly, faded to fourth in an event won by Otylia Jedrzejezak of Poland in 2:06.05. Sandeno finished in 2:08.18. ``It was my best time, so I can't be that disappointed,'' Sandeno said. She also knew she had to get her mind right for the 800 relay, in which she swam the anchor leg. ``I knew I was going to have to flip the switch in my mind,'' she said. ``I knew I'd be OK in the relay because I swim well when I'm mad. I turn it around and funnel it where it has to go.'' Even ``mad,'' Sandeno admitted to a case of nerves before the relay. She said she had never previously competed in an international relay. ``So I was kind of nervous going last, and the guys were calming me down, Natalie especially, and I'm thinking there's no way they're going to pass me on that one.'' Like Sandeno, Coughlin swam earlier Wednesday, qualifying third in the 100 freestyle. Australia's Jodie Henry set a world record in the semifinals with a mark of 53.52 seconds. Coughlin's split in Wednesday's relay would have been good enough to win gold in the 200 freestyle on Tuesday night. But she passed up the event in favor of the relay, which she loves, and because the competition schedule left her with a conflict in the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke. ``It's a huge deal,'' she said of the relay gold, ``especially for me.'' Paul Oberjuerge, (909) 386-3865 paul.oberjuerge(at)sbsun.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos, box Photo: (1 -- color) The U.S. women's 800 freestyle relay team of Carly Piper (from left), Natalie Coughlin, Dana Vollmer and USC's Kaitlin Sandeno savor their win. (2) Kaitlin Sandeno gets pats on the back from her teammates after anchoring the U.S. to a world record in the 800 freestyle relay final. Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press Box: ONE FOR THE AGES |
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