Streamlined News: April 9, 2012


PHOENIX, Arizona, April 9. THE Chinese swimming federation has not publicly released its Olympic roster yet, and swimming fans are still wondering the fates of three of the country's top swimmers.

Though last week's nationals were serving as an Olympic Trials, the Chinese federation has said that the meet is not the end-all, be-all of selecting its Olympic squad. Several mitigating circumstances could help get Liu Zige and Zhang Lin on the team, and give Wu Peng the opportunity to swim the 200 fly in London.

Liu is the world record holder and reigning Olympic champion in the 200 fly, but finished third last week behind reigning world champion Jiao Liuyang and rising star Gong Jie. Liu was third in the 200 fly at last summer's worlds, and her performance in Shanghai may be used to consider her for the event over Gong Jie.

Zhang Lin won the silver in the 400 freestyle at the 2008 Olympics, but struggled last week and was fourth in the 400 free, 10th in the 200 free and sixth in the mile. Would China give their only male Olympic swimming medalist another chance to compete in the event?

And Wu Peng seemingly missed out on a spot on the Olympic team when he finished second in the 200 fly in a time slower than the FINA A cut. Wu was third in the 200 fly at the world championships, and will already be competing in London in the 200 IM. Will he get the opportunity to swim the 200 fly as well?

If and when China publicly releases its Olympic roster, we'll let you know who's on it on swimmingworld.com.

Across the Japan Sea, the Japanese Olympic team has been named. Twenty-seven swimmers will compete in London, and today a major gauntlet has been dropped for Japanese swimmers to bring home medals. The online stock trading firm GMO Glick Securities will be offering $366,000 to each swimmer who wins a gold medal in London, $36,100 for silver medalists and $12,000 for bronze medalists. This is in addition to the thousands of dollars the Japanese swimming federation is offering for medal winners. Potentially, when you take sponsorship bonuses out of the picture, Japanese medal winners could leave London as the richest swimmers. If Kosuke Kitajima, for example, wins both breaststrokes in London, he'll win more than $804,000, in addition to any financial bonuses his sponsors give him.

Dennis Pursley will be returning to the United States after helping the British Olympic team perform in front of a home crowd in July. Pursley became the British national team director shortly after the Beijing Olympics, just one of his many coaching and administrative accomplishments that stretch back more than 30 years, including coaching Mary T. Meagher and leading the US swim team in the late 1980s. Michael Scott will stay on as the country's performance director through at least the 2016 Olympics.

Finally, the aquatic sports community is mourning the passing of diving great Mark Lenzi, who had been in the hospital for a couple of weeks after suffering fainting spells resulting from extremely low blood pressure. Lenzi won the gold medal on the three-meter springboard in 1992, then returned in 1996 to win bronze. He had been recently coaching at East Carolina University.

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