PHOENIX, Ariz., Aug. 9. AFTER a scintillating week of performances at the 2006 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships last week that featured a pair of world-record outings, Brendan Hansen garnered USA Today\u2019s U.S. Olympic Athlete of the Week honor.<\/p>\n
The reigning world champion in the 100 and 200 breast events, Hansen has left no doubt that he\u2019s the premier breaststroker on the planet, competing at a level that once seemed unfathomable. Hansen took the race out quickly, splitting 28.87 at the 50-meter mark and 1:01.58 at the midpoint of the race. He remained ahead of record pace when he touched in 1:34.84 at the 150 and powered home with the help of a boisterous crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 200 is my baby,\u201d Hansen said. \u201cIt\u2019s my favorite event. After the 100 earlier in the week, I knew my 200 would be quick. I wanted to chip away at it, but after my warmup and prelim this morning, I knew that kind of time was a possibility. I think I have more in the tank. A 2:07 isn\u2019t far away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Hansen shattered his own world record in the 100-meter breaststroke with a spectacular 59.13. Hansen went out in .27 seconds under world-record pace with a 27.66 to get the entire crowd behind him as the excitement built throughout his race.<\/p>\n
"I wanted the opportunity, just give me a lane and give me a chance," Hansen said. "This whole summer has been real special for me so far. It was just a matter of me putting all the little things together and just having a good race."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PHOENIX, Ariz., Aug. 9. AFTER a scintillating week of performances at the 2006 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships last week that featured a pair of world-record outings, Brendan Hansen garnered<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76543,"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-11808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n