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Countdown to Beijing '08 - Swimming
// USOC Media Services // October 3, 2006
Outlook
The American swimmers racked up 28 medals in 2004 – 12 gold, nine silver and seven bronze – to account for 22 percent of the overall United States medal haul in Athens. With the core group of individual medal winners poised to continue training through the 2008 Olympic Games, the future is bright for American swimming.
USA Swimming took a bold step in 2006, hiring legendary coach Mark Schubert as the new USA Swimming Head Coach & General Manager and two-time Olympian Lindsay (Benko) Mintenko as the National Team Managing Director. Already, the ripples of Schubert’s appointment have been felt around the world. Schubert has instituted ambitiou goals for Team USA at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing: win all six of the relays. Relays were a strength for the Americans in 2004, as the U.S. won three of the six – and all three were in dramatic fashion.
All eyes will be on Michael Phelps, who wowed the world with his eight-medal performance in Athens. Phelps used 2005 to experiment with a few different events; however, after an intense year focused on training, the Baltimore native has returned to top form. Expect Phelps to be a threat in multiple individual events, in addition likely swimming on all three relays. Along with Phelps, individual Olympic medalists Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen and Ian Crocker should give the U.S. the advantage in the specialty events. Both Peirsol and Crocker have broken world records since 2004, and all three continue to drop time and dominate their individual events.
On the women’s side, Olympic gold medalist Natalie Coughlin has returned to Olympic form in 2006, citing varied dryland and weight training programs as one reason for her stellar performances. Along with two-time Olympian Kaitlin Sandeno, Coughlin is one of the veterans on the women’s side after a number of swimmers retired post Athens. Filling the void are a few talented teenagers, including Katie Hoff, Kate Ziegler and Jessica Hardy. The three made a statement at the 2005 World Championships, bringing home six individual gold medals among them. These three, along with a number of yet-to-be-determined young stars, should provide depth to an already strong U.S. women’s team.
Storylines
The Relays
Heading into 2008, USA Swimming Head Coach & General Manager Mark Schubert has made winning relays a major goal for the U.S. team. In 2004, Team USA won three of the six relays, with all three coming in dramatic fashion. The men’s 4x200m freestyle relay pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Olympic swimming, stunning the Australians, who had not lost the race at a major international competition in seven years. The women’s 4x200m freestyle relay came to the blocks the next day inspired, going on to win gold and shatter the oldest world record in the books, set by the East Germans 17 years ago to the day. On the final night of swimming in Athens – last event of the meet – the men’s 4x100m medley relay set a world record, continuing the U.S. streak of never losing the men’s
400m medley relay in an Olympic Games.
The Comeback Kids
A number of past Olympians have staged comebacks in the hopes of making the team in 2008. Two-time Olympian Erik Vendt returned to the pool in April 2006 after retiring from competitive swimming after Athens. Vendt, who has won two silver medals in the 400m individual medley, spent four months backpacking in Europe after the 2004 Games before moving to New York, where he taught swimming lessons to beginners. Working with the kids gave him a new outlook on the sport. After the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Vendt decided to give it another go, this time training at Club Wolverine each day against one of his biggest competitors: Michael Phelps.
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Brooke Bennett returned to the pool in January 2006, reuniting with her long-time coach Peter Banks after a year away from the pool. In 2001, she had double shoulder surgery, which brought her career to a halt until March of 2002. However, she made a comeback and qualified for the Olympic Trials, finishing seventh in the 400m free and narrowly missing the team in the 800m free, finishing third.
Two-time Olympian Josh Davis has moved to Mexico to begin training for the 2008 Olympic Trials. In 1996, Davis made history by becoming the only man in any sport from any nation at the Atlanta Olympic Games to win three gold medals. With a passion for representing the U.S., Josh returned to the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 where he was elected captain of the USA men's swim team. An ambassador for the sport of swimming, Davis competed at the 2004 Olympic Trials; however, he did not make the team. He has continued to be a prominent figure within the swimming community, running the most successful swim clinic business in the U.S. Why does he do it? Because he wants to support his friends on the National Team. Besides USA Swimming and the apparel sponsors, Davis’s company supplies more financial support to swimmers than any other entity every year.
The Clock in Michigan
It has become notorious in the swimming community – the Olympic clock at Canham Natatorium in Ann Arbor, Mich., that serves as a “Countdown to Beijing.” University of Michigan head coach Bob Bowman – who will also be the head coach of the men’s team for the 2007 FINA World Championships – purchased the clock in the fall to inspire his swimmers. The clock, which is an estimated six feet in length, hangs just below the Olympic rings painted on the wall and contains the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the beginning of the 2008 Olympic Games.
The China Connection
If Tara Kirk competes at the 2008 Olympic Games in China, it is likely she will be surrounded by family – many of whom are Chinese. Kirk's grandfather, Leung Kwok-kong, was born in China, in the province of Quangdong. He and his family immigrated to Hong Kong when he was a young boy, then later to the Philippines when he was 16 years old. Kirk's grandmother, Aw-yong Mei-Lan, was born in the Philippines to Chinese parents also from the province of Quangdong, and she went back to China later for her education. Although Kirk's family moved around before settling in the United States, she says she is proud of her Chinese heritage. She still has family members who live in China.
The Youth Movement
With a number of veterans retiring after the 2004 Olympic Games, the U.S. women’s team has seen a resurgence with the performances of its younger swimmers, particularly teenagers Katie Hoff, Kate Ziegler and Jessica Hardy. The three made a statement at the 2005 World Championships, bringing home six individual gold medals among them. Hoff and Ziegler both won two individual gold, with Hoff sweeping the IM races (200m and 400m IM), and Ziegler taking the distance freestyles (800m and 1500m free). Hardy shocked everyone – including herself – by setting a world record in the semifinals of the 100m breaststroke. She went on to win silver in the finals. These three, along with a number of yet-to-be-determined young stars, should provide depth to an already strong U.S. women’s
team.
The Athletes
You can’t talk about the 2004 Olympic Games without mentioning Michael Phelps in the same breath. The Baltimore, Md., native dominated the Olympic pool in Athens, taking home eight medals, six of them gold. He was the first swimmer in a non-boycotted Olympic Games to accomplish the feat. After the Olympics, Phelps deviated from his pre-Olympic routine – in which he hadn’t missed a practice in five years – to pursue other ventures outside the pool and promote the sport of swimming in the United States. After the 2004 Games, Phelps participated in a 14-city post-Olympic tour with fellow Olympic teammates Ian Crocker and Lenny Krayzelburg in an effort to raise the profile of the sport of swimming. He starred in a behind-the-scenes documentary entitled Unfiltered: The Story Behind the Rivalry with teammate and rival Crocker that was released in October of 2005; Unfiltered was selected for the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. He also co-authored a book with Sports Illustrated’s Brian Cazeneuve entitled, “Michael Phelps: Beneath the Surface;” it was released in the fall of 2004. Now, Phelps is refocused on swimming and ready to accomplish similar Olympic-sized feats in 2008.
Katie Hoff took the Olympic swimming world by storm in 2004, qualifying for the team in two events. She was the youngest member of the entire U.S. delegation in Athens. After a disappointing performance in her Olympic debut, Hoff returned to training with a vengeance. Her dedication and determination paid off in 2005 when, at the World Championships, she won both the 200m and 400m individual medley gold medals, in addition to swimming on the 4x200m freestyle relay. Despite her accomplishments in the pool, Hoff has received quite a bit of recognition out of the pool as well. In the fall of 2005, she signed with Octagon, the same agency that represents former North Baltimore Aquatic Club teammate Michael Phelps. In January 2006, she signed a record 10-year deal with Speedo which, at the time, was the longest athlete contract in the brand’s history. In April, Teen People named her one of their “Twenty Teens Who Will Change The World.” And now, two years out from the 2008 Olympic Trials, Hoff has already qualified for all 13 events on the schedule.
People within the swimming community have thrown out many big "labels" when talking about Kate Ziegler: "The next Janet Evans;" "The next distance freestyle queen." Those are some big shoes to fill in being compared to Janet Evans (after all, Janet still holds two world records that she set in the late 1980s). But in the past year, Ziegler's performances prove that people have reason to be excited about her potential. She has launched an all-out assault on the record books, breaking or lowering seven American records (which is the fastest time ever by an American) in 2005 and the early part of 2006. Many of the records she has broken have been on the books for a long time. Ziegler, who loves shopping, fashion and interior design and aspires to be an interior decorator or personal shopper in the future, decided to forgo her college eligibility so she could remain with long-time coach Ray Benecki and train at home. She also signed a long-term deal with Speedo that will set her up through the 2012 Olympic Games.
Maritza Correia made big strides in 2004 when she became the first black female swimmer to make an Olympic Team. However, since graduating from the University of Georgia in 2005, the Florida native has thrown herself into preserving the black heritage in swimming and providing resources for inner-city kids to become involved in the sport. Correia was recently featured as an expert on CNN about the history of blacks in swimming. She also served as the campaign spokeswoman for the USA Swimming Make a Splash Water Safety Initiative, in which she promoted the importance of learning how to swim as the best way to prevent drowning. She and National Team teammate Cullen Jones are going to be featured in a documentary about African Americans in the sport of swimming and their journey leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games.
Welcome to the Amanda Beard empire. When she first appeared on the world’s radar in 1996, she was a little-known 14-year-old, quietly swimming her way into the Olympic record books as the second youngest swimmer ever to medal at an Olympic Games. Today, she’s launching her own signature product line (including skin and hair care products), posing for the cover of FHM and in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue, serving as an environmental spokesperson with Defenders of Wildlife, and finding herself ESPN Page 2’s “Hottest Female Athlete.” She also has plans to visit some military bases to inspire soldiers on their way to Iraq and to encourage injured soldiers just back from Iraq and Afghanistan. While still planning on swimming in her fourth Olympics in 2008, Beard is now busy positioning herself as the posterchild for an active, healthy – and sexy – lifestyle.
On one hand, there’s her performance at the 2004 Olympic Games: Natalie Coughlin left Athens with five medals (two gold) and three records (one world record) – good enough to merit the distinction ‘greatest Olympic performance ever by an American female swimmer.’ On the other hand, there’s her desire to give back: She is a member of the Women’s Sports Foundation and a contributor to the Tobacco-Free Kids ‘Kick Butts’ campaign. It was all very impressive – until word began to leak out: She’s also charming. And attractive. And a great cook. She even crashed NBC’s Today Show in 2002 and gave Al Roker a lesson in the creation of a perfect pork and persimmon risotto dish. In 2006, she tried her hand at a broadcasting gig, serving as an Olympic analyst for MSNBC during the Torino Olympic Winter Games. Well-rounded? You’d better believe it.
Every accomplished athlete knows the mantra: Never too high during good times, never too low during bad ones. Perhaps no athlete personifies that mantra quite like Brendan Hansen. Already an accomplished breaststroker leading up to the 2000 Olympic Games, Hansen didn’t perform well at the Olympic Trials and failed to qualify. Rather than dwelling on what might have been, the former Texas Longhorn re-dedicated himself to the sport and has soared ever since, winning three Olympic medals in 2004 and establishing himself as the world’s leading breaststroker. A spokesperson for the Leukemia Foundation, the Pennsylvania native does hospital visits, fundraising appearances and even youth swim clinics to raise money for the foundation. He is also an avid outdoorsman, spending much of his free time hunting and fishing. If you ever can’t find him in the pool, look for Hansen in the mountains, his favorite place to spend time outside of the water.
A laid-back, Southern California surf junkie, Aaron Peirsol’s love of the waves almost makes you wonder where he feels more at home – winning medals in the pool, or “ripping a swell on the pond” (we had to look that one up). In his spare time, he serves as an ambassador for the Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit environmental agency that works to preserve oceans and beaches. He is also being finalized as the spokesperson for a new campaign with http://www.oceana.org/ to help deep water ocean conservation efforts. And in September of 2005, the city of Honolulu acknowledged Peirsol’s efforts by naming him an honorary lifeguard – a distinction of great honor in the Hawaiian community.
Never mind that she’s part of a deep class of women’s breaststrokers. Don’t concern yourself with her Olympic medal. Forget about the fact that she never lost in the 100 breast (35-0) in college. All anyone wants to know from Tara Kirk these days is: Anthropological Sciences? That’s the Masters Degree the 23-year-old picked up from Stanford in 2005. And her senior thesis? How about, ‘Reflections: Using Avian Influenza to Investigate the Pandemic of 1918.’ In 2004, Tara and her younger sister Dana became the first sisters ever to swim on the same Olympic Team.
Bubbly. Vivacious. Spirited. Each of these words is easily applied to two-time Olympian (and aspiring morning talk show host) Kaitlin Sandeno, and each hits a bullseye. But to focus solely on her bouncy personality, or on her efforts to promote asthma awareness, would be an injustice to the fiercely competitive spirit that lies just below her smiling exterior. In 2001, the Southern California native suffered a career threatening stress fracture in her back. To make matters worse, the injury took nearly six months to properly diagnose. Whereas many in her position would give up, Sandena rose to the challenge, and over the course of the next four years fought her way back to the top of the swimming world – even helping break a 17-year-old relay world record at the 2004 Olympic Games.
Not brash. Forthright. Not cocky. Confident. Larsen Jensen, the undisputed king of American distance events, carries himself with the swagger of a prizefighter, but beneath the outspoken veneer is a thoughtful man with compelling aspirations. Both an avid reader and a thrillseeker, Jensen has become something of a civilian expert on the Navy SEALs, devouring book after book on the subject between swims during the 2005 season. And who knows? It might even lead this son of California almond farmers to a military career. Admittedly aware that a lot can change between now and the culmination of the 2008 Olympic Games, Jensen sees himself pursuing a postswimming life to match his own intrepid personality. Until then, swimming greatness will have to suffice.
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