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One big pool party
When it comes to swimming, Aussies make a splash
Latest: Tuesday September 19, 2000 02:53 PM
SYDNEY, Australia -- As you have no doubt heard by now, swimming is one very big deal here in Australia. If you don't believe it, consider the following:
Parents encourage their athletically inclined kids to get into competitive swimming for the financial rewards. "You can make a hell of a lot more money than a doctor or lawyer," says a doctor who is volunteering during the Games. Case in point: it has been widely estimated that triple gold medalist and national hero Ian Thorpe, 17, will make $5 million in endorsements and appearance fees in the coming years.
All Australians learn to swim at a tender age, sometimes before they are a year old. Thus, says SOCOG volunteer Tony Richards proudly, "Most drownings are foreigners."
Among the officially licensed Olympic merchandise available for sale in local stores is a Swimming Champion Barbie, complete with little red, blue and silver warmups and a clashing gold medal. Though Barbie is wearing a traditional tank suit instead of the trendy bodysuit, she does sport one technical advance: a windup key in her back that allows her to swim freestyle and backstroke "like a real champion!", according to the packaging. A bargain at $44 Australian.
The media demand for seats at the Olympic aquatic center far outstrips supply. For Sunday night's session, in which Tom Dolan and Inge de Bruijn broke world records, the U.S. Olympic Committee had 210 requests from American journalists for 61 seats. Remarkably, Bill Hancock, the USOC official charged with the thankless task of deciding who gets those precious ducats, reports that he has not yet been threatened with physical harm or even been sworn at by swimming's lotto losers. In any case, violence is more likely to break out among those who do get tickets: the "mixed-zone areas" where reporters are allowed to talk to swimmers as they make their way from the competition pool to the warm-down pool have, in both design and effect, a disturbing resemblance to sheep pens. The past several days in the mixed zone, I have had the opportunity to study -- through a forest of my press colleagues' heads, shoulders, and brandished tape recorders -- Lenny Krayzelburg's hairline, de Bruijn's eyebrow and Jenny Thompson's ear. But I haven't heard a word they've said. So on Tuesday I got smart and watched the Australian men shred the 4x200 freestyle relay world record and send the hometown crowd into Thorpian rapture on a pressroom TV. Fifteen minutes after the race was over, a nearby Australian volunteer who had kept her emotions professionally muted to that point finally gave out a little squeal of delight. "That race made my night," she confessed. That's how big swimming is here.
False Starts
Misty Hyman, who at 13 pioneered the "extended breakout" technique -- that underwater dolphin kick that swimmers now use at the start of non-breaststroke races -- and used to maintain it for 30 meters, was crushed in 1998 when FINA ruled that swimmers had to surface within 15 meters of the start. "The extended breakout was such a big part of my race, and I had used it to get to the world-class level," says Hyman. "For a while I doubted I could get back without it." By working on her surface strokes, it took Hyman just a year to get back within striking distance of her best times. "My 100 hasn't gotten as fast but I'm now doing my fastest times in the 200," says Hyman, who qualified fourth for Wednesday's 200 fly final. "In fact, I think I'm a better swimmer now."... Michael Phelps, at 15 the youngest man to make the U.S. Olympic swim team since 1932, was but a 5'7", 115-pound slip of a boy just a year ago. Since then he has gained 60 pounds, eight inches and a lot of speed. His fifth-place time of 1:56.50 in the 200 fly final would have won the gold medal in Atlanta. ... Tom Malchow, who won the final in that event with an Olympic record time of 1:55.35, is the first person from Minnesota to win an individual gold medal at a Summer Games. ... Eric Moussambani, the FINA wild-card invitee from Equatorial Guinea who finished the 100 free to a standing ovation with a time of 1:52.72, just started swimming in January. He had to swim his heat -- his first race over 50 meters -- alone when his heatmates and fellow FINA invitees, Karim Bare of Nigeria and Farkhod Oripov of Tajikistan, both flung themselves into the water after the "ready" command and were disqualified.
SI For Women staff writer Kelli Anderson is in Sydney covering the Games for the magazine and CNNSI.com. Check back to read Anderson's behind-the-scenes reports from Down Under.
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