By Phillip Whitten<\/p>\n
PORTLAND, Oregon, June 5. NIKE — the footwear giant — has re-entered the swimming market. With a splash!<\/p>\n
The Portland, Oregon-based company recently signed 11 top swimmers, including nine Americans, to represent it for at least the next year. NIKE did not divulge any details of the contracts.<\/p>\n
Topping the list is double Olympic champion and 100 meter freestyle world record-holder, Pieter van den Hoogenband, of Holland. Hoogie, who holds the global standard in swimming's blue-ribbon event at 47.84, is the only man ever to crack 48 seconds. He's done it four times.<\/p>\n
Italy's Alessio Boggiatto, the defending World champion in the 400 IM, also inked a contract with the company.<\/p>\n
The USA's Haley Cope, world champion in the 50 meter backstroke, renewed her contract with NIKE.<\/p>\n
New to the NIKE fold are:<\/p>\n
Jason Lezak, 2000 Olympian and the world's #1-ranked 50 meter freestyler in 2002;<\/p>\n
Kristy Kowal, 2000 Olympic silver medalist and the American record-holder in the 200m breaststroke;<\/p>\n
Maritza Correia, American record-holder in the 50 yard freestyle and #2 all-time in the 100;<\/p>\n
Maggie Bowen, defending World champion in the 200m IM and American record-holder in the 200 yard IM;<\/p>\n
Erin Phenix, 2000 Olympic gold-medalist (in prelims) in the 400m freestyle relay;<\/p>\n
Tommy Hannan, 2000 Olympic gold medalist swimming fly (in prelims) in the 400m medley relay;<\/p>\n
David Denniston, won several events on the 2002-03 FINA World Cup tour; and<\/p>\n
Aaron Ciarla, outstanding sprinter who won an NCAA title in the 50 yard free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Phillip Whitten PORTLAND, Oregon, June 5. NIKE — the footwear giant — has re-entered the swimming market. With a splash! The Portland, Oregon-based company recently signed 11 top swimmers,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n