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Seventh heaven Thompson leads U.S. relay to gold, wins her seventh goldLatest: Wednesday October 11, 2000 12:17 PM
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Jenny Thompson moved into a tie for second place in most career gold medals for a woman by anchoring the United States to a victory in the 800-meter freestyle Wednesday. Thompson, 27, also snapped a tie with Germany's Kristin Otto in career golds by a woman swimmer. She is tied with gymnast Vera Caslavska of the Czech Republic for the second-most Olympic golds by a woman and trails former Soviet Union gymnast Larissa Latynina, who holds the Olympic record with nine gold medals. Thompson will swim again Thursday in the 100-meter freestyle and on Saturday on the 4x100 medley relay team.
Thompson of Dover, N.H., also tied Australian Dawn Fraser, Kornelia Ender of Germany and fellow American Shirley Babashoff for most Olympic medals by a woman swimmer with eight. Seven of Thompson's medals have come in relays; she won a silver in the 100 freestyle at the 1992 Olympics.
The U.S. team of Samantha Arsenault, Diana Munz, Lindsay Benko and Thompson won in an Olympic record 7 minutes, 57.80 seconds. Australia earned silver in 7:58.52. Germany won bronze in 7:58.64. The Americans are 2-0 in the women's relays so far. Thompson swam the anchor leg of the winning 400 freestyle relay Saturday for her sixth career gold. Arsenault led off for the Americans and had them in sixth place after 200 meters, while Susie O'Neill had the Australians in first. Munz pulled the Americans into second at 400 meters, and Benko kept them there to set up Thompson. As Thompson overtook Petria Thomas, Benko pounded on the starting block in Lane 4. A few months ago, Thompson wrote in a diary on CNNSI.com that she was training harder than ever for these Olympics. In it she mentioned the Australian Thomas. "Some of my competitors," she noted in an installment that mentioned Thomas, "have been swimming out of their suits." To prepare to face Thomas and others, Thompson wrote that she was following a strict training regimen: nine swim workouts, three weight lifting sessions, three spinning sessions, and two pilates sessions per week. "It has been going well, though, and I'm pleased with my progress," she wrote. As it got closer to the Olympics, she said that she was feeling tired from the workouts. But she also noticed that a rival, the Netherlands' Inge de Bruijn was starting to swim extremely well, breaking world records, including one that Thompson held in 100 butterfly. She started to use de Bruijn's success, as well as the fast times being turned in by Thomas and other Australians, as ways to motivate her. "Training has been really tough, and I've been walking around in a constant state of exhaustion," Thompson wrote in June. "That will end shortly, however, when we start to cut down on the amount we practice and start to focus on speed. I can't wait for that because then I will actually have lots of energy! "Sometimes it's really difficult to have fun during this really intense time in training -- it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just have to remind myself how it will pay off in August and September, that hurting that much more now will translate to swimming that much faster when the time comes." And, she might have added, swimming that much faster would translate into an opportunity to become most golden female Olympian ever. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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