COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., July 12 MORE than 20 Olympic gold medalists, including such stars as Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen and Katie Hoff, return to Irvine, Calif., for the 2006 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships, Aug. 1-5 at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatic Center.<\/p>\n
The most talented swimmers in the U.S. will be vying for spots on five international teams, including the team headed to the upcoming Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Championships (Aug. 17-21, Victoria, British Columbia.) Additionally, competitors will battle for spots at the 2007 FINA World Championships from March 25-April 1 in Melbourne, Australia, the 2007 Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool on April 3 in Sydney, Australia, the 2007 World University Games from Aug. 8-13 in Bangkok, Thailand and the 2007 Pan American Games from July 14-21 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.<\/p>\n
At the U.S. National Championships in 2002 \u2013 the last time as many international teams were chosen \u2013 the swimming was fast and furious. American swimmers set two world and five American records. With less than two years to go until the selection of the 2008 Olympic Team, what kind of action will 2006 bring? Stay tuned.<\/p>\n
Other festivities include Coughlin throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at the Dodgers vs. Nationals game on July 29 at 1:10 p.m, while Kaitlin Sandeno will throw out the first pitch at the A\u2019s at Anaheim game on July 31 at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
Throughout the meet, Olympic medalists will sign autographs prior to the start of each finals session in the Aqua Zone fan experience area at Woollett Aquatic Center. The schedule is as follows:<\/p>\n
Aug. 1: Tara Kirk, 2004 Olympic silver medalist and Palo Alto resident
\nAug. 2: Brendan Hansen, 2004 Olympic gold medalist
\nAug. 3: Klete Keller, Olympic gold medalist
\nAug. 4: Maritza Correia, 2004 Olympic silver medalist
\nAug. 5: Jason Lezak, Two-time Olympic gold medalist and Irvine native<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., July 12 MORE than 20 Olympic gold medalists, including such stars as Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen and Katie Hoff, return to Irvine, Calif.,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n