Phelps Sets Record, Hoff Advances
On the first of nine days of the Olympic swimming meet, American Michael Phelps broke his own Olympic record in the 400-meter individual medley, and Katie Hoff, who like Phelps grew up training at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, put aside the nerves that nearly ruined her experience at her first Olympics four years ago to advance to the finals of the women's version of the same event. Breaststroker Brendan Hansen, though, was slower than expected - and accused his rivals of showing off.
Phelps, the 23-year-old from Baltimore County who is pursuing a record eight gold medals here, began his third Olympics with a relaxed swim that may be the first indication of how confident he is about his chances at history. He won the last of four heats in 4 minutes, 7.82 seconds, breaking the mark he set in Athens by .44 of a second.
"I'm happy to get the first-race jitters sort of out," Phelps said immediately afterward. "The first race is probably one of the most important ones, to get it out of your system. I'm pretty satisfied with that time. I didn't think I was going to be that fast in the prelims."
Laszlo Cseh of Hungary, who won bronze behind Phelps in the 400 IM in 2004, won his heat with the second-fastest time of the day, 4:09.26. Italy's Luca Marin (4:10.22) and American Ryan Lochte, considered perhaps the most significant threat to Phelps in what could be his most difficult individual race, was fourth in 4:10.33.
Asked about Lochte's positioning for the eight-man final Sunday morning here - Saturday night in the United States - Phelps said: "It's not the final. Tomorrow's really all that matters."
Hoff, too, put herself in good position to win her first career medal. The 19-year-old from Towson, Md., trailed after the first two legs of the 400 IM - the butterfly and backstroke. Racing in the final heat, she surged in the breaststroke, then finished off solidly in 4:34.63. Elizabeth Beisel of Rhode Island actually posted the best times of heats (4:34.55), with the woman who is supposed to be Hoff's primary challenger, Stephanie Rice of Australia, tied for third with Italy's Alessia Filippi (4:35.11).
Four years ago, Hoff swam in her first Olympics in this event as a 15-year-old. Though she owned the fastest time in the world that year, she crashed out of the semifinals, finishing fifth in her heat and failing to reach the final, even throwing up because of nerves afterward. She has been reminded of that this week.
"My heart was beating a little bit in the ready room," Hoff said. "But I felt like I could kind of breathe through it. And with another four years under my belt, I think I'm better."
Potentially the most startling result came from Hansen, the world record holder in the 100-meter version of his specialty who posted the 10th-fastest time in preliminary heats of his race. Because there are semifinals in the event, the top 16 swimmers advanced. Hansen admitted his time of 1:00.34 - well off his world mark of 59.13 seconds - wasn't as fast as he wanted, but he dismissed it as merely strategy.
"I don't want to be the center of attention just yet," Hansen said. "I don't want to be breaking world records the first night we're here."
Japan's Kitajima Kosuke, Hansen's chief rival, posted the second-fastest time (59.52), just behind Norway's Alexander Dale Oen (59.41). Hansen all but called that showboating.
"It's like you're playing a card game right now, and those guys are showing their hand," he said. "There's a lot of peacocks out there showing their feathers, and I'm just chilling in the back. That's exactly where I want to be."
The evening concluded with the heats of the women's 4x100-meter relay, an event that will feature 41-year-old Dara Torres in Sunday's final. Torres, though, didn't swim in the heats, and the American team of Kara Lynn Joyce, Allison Schmitt, Lacy Nymeyer and Emily Silver posted the third-fastest time, trailing China and Germany.
Torres, in her fifth Olympics, qualified for the 100-meter freestyle by winning the event at trials, but dropped it so she didn't put too much strain on herself in her specialty, the 50-meter freestyle. She will, however, swim the relay, and American record holder Natalie Coughlin is expected to swim on that team, too.
In other developments tonight, Australia's Jessicah Schipper was the fastest qualifier in the heats of the women's 100-meter butterfly, touching in 57.58 seconds. That was .12 of a second ahead of both Christine Magnuson of the United States and China's Zhou Yafei. That event still has semifinal heats before the final.
Also, Larsen Jensen of the United States, the silver medalist in the 1,500-meter freestyle in Athens, asserted himself in the middle distances by posting the fastest time in the 400 freestyle (3:43.10). China's Zhang Lin was second, and received one of the largest cheers of the night when he won his heat in 3:43.32. Australian Grant Hackett, the likely favorite, was fifth-fastest and advanced to the final.
Remember, though the first finals of the meet are Sunday morning here, they'll be broadcast live in the United States on Saturday night.
By
Barry Svrluga
|
August 9, 2008; 9:16 AM ET
| Category:
Swimming
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Posted by: Coco Pazzo | August 9, 2008 9:42 AM
Coco Pazzo:
An Olympic level swimmer should be able suck it up and figure out how to swim whenever the organizers say you will swim.
They have already been plucked out of everything the know and understand culturally, how much is time going to matter? I am sure they have planned their taper schedule accordingly, and the schedule of events was not sprung on them when they go to Bejing. If there is any whining I would say they are too pampered.
Posted by: Judith | August 9, 2008 10:00 AM
These Olympic quality swimmers wake up almost every morning extremely early (earlier than this venue time)for their practice and conditioning. By now, this is routine. In addition, they have known about this schedule for months and are mentally and physically prepared for it. And finally, the adrenalin rush of the Olympic finals takes care of any other circadian rhythm issues.
Posted by: Carlos Alvarez | August 9, 2008 11:38 AM
Almost all swimmers practice very early in the morning (earlier than this), and swim meets are often early in the morning anyway. An 8am start isn't all that early, actually. For swimmers who are used to waking up very early anyway, it's not going to be a big deal. Plus, they've already had to adjust to (if they're American) a 12ish hour time difference, cultural differences, and everything else. I don't think the start time will be a big deal.
Posted by: Delilah | August 9, 2008 3:56 PM
Swimmers do get up very early and practice. And swim meets do begin early in the morning. But finals are ALWAYS in the late afternoon or evening. The schedule here was altered 180-degrees from every other major swimming competition, explicitly for NBC. It is a big deal, if you actually are a swimmer or know anything about competitive swimmer. That said, Olympic-level swimmers have known about this for a while now and have been training accordingly. So while it's not optimal for peak performance, hopefully it will end up being a no-big-deal.
Posted by: Swimmer Dad | August 9, 2008 7:18 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
NBC and the Intl Olympic Committee should be ashamed of themselves, for altering the event schedule to accommodate the broadcast desires of the network.
In an effort to show the events "live" in the US, the two organizations decreed that event finals would be competed in the morning sessions-- as early as 8:00 a.m. because of the 12 hour time differences between Beijing and New York. As a consequence, athletes who have trained for years for their events, are forced to get out of bed very early, eat, travel to the swimming venue, warmup, etc., and then compete in what may be the biggest event of their lives in the morning-- so NBC can can make more money by broadcasting "live." Anyone who has grumbled through an 8:30 a.m. meeting at work should know that this is not optimal.
That is a real disservice to the athletes. Shame, shame, shame.