Streamlined News: Paralympians Continue World Record Slaughter; Three Aquatic Athletes Nominated for Award; Remembering Peony Munger


PHOENIX, Arizona, September 4. THE Paralympics continued over the weekend, and world records were falling in nearly every event at the London Aquatics Center. Perhaps one of the most newsworthy moments came in the women's 50 free in the S8 category, where Mallory Weggemann won with a meet and American record time of 31.13. Weggemann was moved to a new disability classification just before the meet, which meant competing against an entirely different group of swimmers in London. Weggemann swam the 100 breast in her new division on Saturday, finishing sixth, but came back to win gold in the 50 free on Sunday.

Jessica Long, who won that 100 breast in the same heat as Weggemann on Saturday, won Paralympic medal number 14 today with a silver in the 100 backstroke. And Brenden Hall of Great Britain broke the world record in the 400 freestyle for the S9 division with a 4:10.88, winning by seven seconds. Natalie du Toit of South Africa was more dominant in her 400 freestyle swim today, winning Paralympic gold medal number 12 in her eight-year Paralympic career by 10 seconds.

Justin Zook almost became the first Paralympian under 1:00 in the 100 backstroke today, winning a close race with a 1:00.01. Zook touched out two big names in the S14 category: Andre Brasil, who was one tenth back and Benoit Huot, who finished seven tenths back for third.

The finals session of today's swimming at the Paralympics is still underway, and we'll have a full recap for you on swimmingworld.com later today.

Jessica Long had something else to celebrate this weekend, as she's a nominee for individual sportswoman of the year by the Women's Sports Foundation. Missy Franklin is also a nominee in that category among some impressive athletes that includes gymnast Gabby Douglas, skier Lindsey Vonn and tennis player Serena Williams. Maggie Steffens, the MVP of the women's water polo tournament at the Olympics, is a nominee in the team sportswoman category. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings, the stars of the beach volleyball court, as well as soccer player Alex Morgan, are also nominees.

On Friday, Swimming World learned that Peony Munger died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer at age 77. Munger, shown on the right in this photo, gained national attention for swimming a mile of butterfly during every workout, a practice that made her famous when she logged 1,000 miles of butterfly in about four years. Munger started swimming later in life to help relieve fibromyalgia pain and migraines, and also competed at the Masters nationals.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x