By John Lohn
BEIJING, China, August 13. MUCH of the pre-Olympic speculation had Australian Stephanie Rice and American Katie Hoff battling it out for the gold medal in the individual medley disciplines. While Rice stayed in that picture, it was Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe who proved to be her primary competition.
Duplicating the finish of the 400 individual medley, when both women broke the existing world record, Rice and Coventry posted a gold-silver finish in the 200 IM, with the duo again breaking the global standard. Rice registered the victory in 2:08.45, faster than the 2:08.59 of Coventry and the old world mark of 2:08.92.
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Coventry, who has three silver medals in Beijing, had an advantage of Rice at the 100- and 150-meter marks, but the Aussie standout split 30.09 on the closing leg to overtake Coventry, who had a final-lap split of 30.32. American Natalie Coughlin, who held the lead after the opening butterfly leg, picked up the bronze medal with a time of 2:10.34.
"It was such a tough race," Rice said. "I really struggled getting in. I am so glad I put it out there this morning. It's really good being next to Natalie Coughlin. She pushed me through the first 100."
Completing the second half of an extremely difficult double, Katie Hoff was fourth with a mark of 2:10.68. It was Hoff's second fourth-place finish of the morning, going with the same result in the 200 free, where she set an American record. The winner of silver in the 400 freestyle and bronze in the 400 IM, Hoff still has the 800 freestyle and 800 free relay remaining.
Placing fifth was Australia's Alicia Coutts in 2:11.43 and Japan's Asami Kitagawa, who won a swimoff to advance to the final, was sixth in 2:11.56. The seventh-place finisher was Canada's Julia Wilkinson in 2:12.43 and Poland's Katarzyna Baranowska was eighth in 2:13.36.
Results: 2008 Olympic Games - Swimming
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Reaction Time Comments
August 12, 2008 Tough day for Hoff; morning finals don't seem to agree with her, but still plenty of room to redeem herself, and she did get AR in 200 free at least. Coughlin about as expected, exact time from Trials final. I would say Hoelzer is now the one who better watch out, now. Coventry, after a world record,two other times under existing world records, and 3 silvers to show for it, must be majorly PISSED!! Submitted by: liquidassets
August 12, 2008 Hoff has nothing to be ashamed of with that one; maybe some anger might be transformed into fuel for the IM. I don't mean to be politically incorrect because this is the truth: I came out of the bathroom when Pang was stepping up to the blocks and for a split second I thought it was a men's event and went to check my schedule because I was confused. I remember her from Athens but she seems to have been relatively "under wraps", as per the Chinese style, since then. Am I the only tongue wagging here?? Submitted by: liquidassets
August 13, 2008 Arn't a bit one eyed here are you liquidassets? Hoff was beaten by better swimmers. End of story. In fact she never looked in the race. Ever. And don't drag out the ole "if she ain't a yank then she must be a drug cheat" please! sheesh! I'd make damn sure your own house was in order before bringing out the drug cheat chestnut. Damn sure. Submitted by: MickH
August 13, 2008 Hoff looks dead tired. Too much swimming for her. Submitted by: PhatMatt
August 13, 2008 Well mick; sounds like you may have an axe to grind. I don't know if Canadians count as "yanks" but it was a Canadian doc who has talked about communicating with the Chinese docs who are experimenting with gene doping. There's no way to test for it so we'd never know. He predicted there would be gene-doped Chinese in Beijing (see Sports Illustrated article). In another piece he said to watch for women who look like men and that's what I saw. BTW, It's not my "house" to clean, but US Swimming did drop Hardy for testing positive, as they should have. And Phelps/Torres have proactively volunteered for extra testing in a special program where their tissues will be frozen for future testing.
I haven't heard of any Chinese swimmers volunteering for that, and I challenge them to that. They should include muscle biopsies, as that is currently the only way to check for gene doping. Sad to say, but doping in general is not a "chestnut", it's a sad fact. It's been predicted it will be missed this year in swimming due to all the attention to the new suits. Isakovic improved awful fast too, although you could see a progression of times with her, and she didn't lay low for 4 years between Olympics.
Since China is still under totalitarian influences, the general lack of openness makes them easy targets. Nonetheless, if we want to minimize doping, these sad questions have to be asked. Submitted by: liquidassets
August 13, 2008 Please. Katie Hoff has the physique of a man too. What if I told you I think that she is one big, drug cheating monster that looks like a (ugly) man?
Yes. You can think all you want about other swimmers outside of the USA that are swimming well, and I am free to think all I want about your swimmers. Oh, there's Lezak's inhuman relay split too. Drugs? Maybe. And what about whatshisname spann who dropped a 2:09 low out of nowhere? Gene doping perhaps?
Just because USA swimming dropped Hardy doesn't mean that everyone is clean. There are surely those who managed to slip through the cracks. Ouyang Kunpeng was also dropped by China for the very same drug that Hardy took. So wouldn't you say the Chinese are as clean as the Americans? Submitted by: Tornado
August 13, 2008 I will not chime in on the doping issue as I am not intelligent enough on the subject to comment. But, Tornado, what size are the men where you are from? Katie Hoff looks like a 15 year age grouper. Hopefully you were just making a point. Submitted by: PhatMatt
August 13, 2008 Hey all,
We do not support anyone speculating whether someone is doping or not without concrete proof.
Please refrain from this type of conversation. It isn't fair to the athletes to chuck names out there just to try to prove a point. Submitted by: Jason Marsteller
August 13, 2008 Are you saying that about Hoff? I did say that I momentarily mistook Pang for a man, which is just a true fact, but didn't say any of the other stuff, as that would be rude. And I don't pretend to have any answers, just questions . If you have an accusation, say it(SemiColon replaced here) I don't at this point. Submitted by: liquidassets
August 13, 2008 Yeah, Trickett is equally or more cut. I was just stating the fact that I momentarily mistook her for a man. I haven't seen her pic as much on tV or the media; the Chinese athletes are "under wraps" in that way, I meant.
I don't know whether China is as clean as the Americans, and didn't say they weren't. But especially given their history of concentrated, if not systematic doping in the 90;s, it would help if their communication and reporting were better so we could see progressions from more minor meets, and then their Trials, and if their top swimmers had volunatarily submitted to the extra testing that Phelps/Torres are getting; actually I think all the medalists and breakout performers from ALL countries should do that. I think we all need to be watchdogs and I don't mind people questioning about US swimmers, either. The experts all seem to say that this is the year where dopers are most likely to go unnoticed because of so much improvement being attributed to the new suits, and it being an Olympic year, etc. Submitted by: liquidassets
August 13, 2008 I remember Hersey and Breeden(SemiColon replaced here) Hersey gradually progressed and then broke out at nationals and then Pan Ams last year, it was a relatively rapid progression. Breeden has been around since winning a national title at age 14-15, several more titles and then had some drops this year, more in the 200 fly only a second in the 100. Both bear watching. Submitted by: liquidassets
August 13, 2008 Stephanie Rice's body shape is...hot!
LOL
:-)
Nup, no axes Liquid, just narrow minded American swim fans. Submitted by: MickH
August 13, 2008 LOL; I knew it, see that's your axe!! ;-) Submitted by: liquidassets
August 13, 2008 Jason Marsteller; I just read your post, and I hear your point and I will refrain as requested to keep the peace, but I also have to say that your request also sounds alot like what people were telling Shirley Babashoff back in the 70's and we all know how that turned out. This may not be the proper forum for this kind of thing, and if not, how else do we as fans (and I KNOW I'm not the only one) with doubts stay interested in a sport with all the controversies now?
I don't like the new suits, but I choose to ignore that now, since the elite athletes at least all have access to more or less equivalent suits I think, so it's more of a philosophical thing than a fairness issue anymore at that level. But with inadequate policies in place for doping, and variability in cultural attitudes towards doping, reporting, communication, etc., speculation is going to occur, it's natural. I suppose the time I spent doing so on here could be more constructively used to write a letter to some organization about doping, but who would that be? To the average fan like me, the whole testing and reporting process seems so byzantine and archaic that it makes us reluctant to get involved and we are left to hope that the powers that be and athlete reps, etc. get it right. Thanks. Submitted by: liquidassets
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