From The Australian: "... Michael Phelps was the predictable male swimmer of the year after winning a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, which also gave him a record career tally of 14. Clearly, Rice was the best female swimmer of the Games after winning the 200m and 400m individual medley in world record times, and combining with team-mates Kylie Palmer, Bronte Barratt and Linda MacKenzie to take an extraordinary 5sec from the 4x200m freestyle world record.
In her Olympic debut, Rice, 20, finished with a perfect record. ..." [Link]
Photo from the Sydney Morning Herald after Stephanie Rice set a WR in the 200 IM at the 2008 Beijing Games: "...Rice's time slashed 0.80 seconds off the previous world record and 2.5 seconds off her own previous best time set at last year's world championships
The 200m medley record had stood for 11 years prior to Rice's dominant performance tonight.
9 comments:
LEN the european swimming federation gave the female european swimmer of the year to rebecca adlington in front of frederica pellegrini and britta steffen . alain bernard won the award for the male swimmer in front of laszlo cseh and milorad cavic
I think Alain Bernard deserves European swimmer of the year and I would have chosen Frederica Pellegrini but I would have been happy with Britta Steffen who a great finish in the 50-free in Beijing.
Also, Stephanie Rice deserves the Swimming World accolade.
I think Rice leapfrogged Steffen, Adlington, and Coventry, and possibly Coughlin, but not Torres, for swimmer of the year. Torres won exactly one individual silver, which doesn't put her on a par with the others, despite her age. Rice, Steffen and Adlington were the only individual double winners, and Rice and Coventry were the only ones to set two individual world records. That leaves Rice as the clear choice.
"I would have chosen Frederica Pellegrini but I would have been happy with Britta Steffen" - come on Tony Rebecca Adlington broke Janet Evans 19 year old world record in the 800m free. I think that makes her the clear choice for European Swimmer of the year. Okay I am biased towards the Brit, but still if I am not mistaken that was the longest standing world record. And she didn't just break it, she smashed it by over 2 seconds.
But Rebecca Adlington does not have a tattoo accross her body
LOL!!!
I definitely think Rice and Coventry deserve recognition for their performances at the 2008 Olympics. I would love to say Torres or Coughlin, but I just dont think thats realistic.
I wrote the original post at 7:04 AM and for some reason Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin came to mind not because of their medals but rather I wanted to associate Rice with American greats an ad gravity to the accomplishment.
Rice deserved it but an argument could have been made for Larissa Il’chenko due t her dominance of any open water she swam in 2007-2008
I think Laszlo Cseh did better than Bernard, given the competition in his events.
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