Salon.com > Andrew Dampf

China hopes to get back on track after diving loss

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 19:31:28 +0000

LONDON (AP) — China wants to get back on track. Paola Espinosa Sanchez wants to pick up right where Ilya Zakharov left off.

The women's 10-meter platform event at the London Olympics begins with the preliminary round on Wednesday, one day after Zakharov stopped China's quest for a sweep of diving gold with a strong performance in the men's 3-meter springboard.

Now Mexico's Sanchez is hoping to build on her podium finish in 10-meter synchro last week, but the platform is still China's event to lose.

Chen Ruolin already paired with Wang Hao to win the 10-meter synchro event and also won both titles before her home fans at the 2008 Beijing Games as a 15-year-old. She then swept both events at last year's world championships in Shanghai, too.

On her 26th birthday, Espinosa Sanchez took silver with Alejandra Orozco in 10-meter synchro last week.

But if the crowd inside the Olympic Aquatics Centre is anything like it was for Zakharov's victory Tuesday, anything could happen.

Fans cheered loudly when Zakharov nailed his final dive. The Russian pumped his left arm as he swam toward the edge of the pool.

With the top two separated by a mere 1.25 points, the gold medal all came down to the final round.

Swimmers seek better exposure outside the Olympics

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 04:25:51 +0000

LONDON (AP) — Michael Phelps has always talked about changing the sport of swimming. He certainly made it more exciting by collecting more Olympic medals than any other athlete in history. But where does the sport go now that its most visible star is retiring?

Swimming doesn't have an established worldwide circuit, so the biggest chance its athletes have to be in the spotlight is at the games. Some top competitors feel it's time to capitalize on the window of opportunity Phelps' success and the games created.

"It is hard for swimmers, just because it's every four years and we only really get one time to shine," Phelps' American rival Ryan Lochte told The Associated Press. "(A full-time circuit) is what we need if we want to make the sport bigger than what it is or what it was."

In between Olympics and the biannual world championships, swimmers compete in a hodgepodge of international events such as the Pan Pacific championships, Asian Games, Pan American Games, Asian championships, European championships and Commonwealth Games.

"The calendar is so full that it's impossible for coaches to understand how to accommodate the preparation, priorities and obligations of the athletes," Cornel Marculescu, the executive director of swimming governing body FINA, said Monday.

IOC defends Chinese swimmer

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:45:00 +0000

LONDON (AP) — Olympic organizers and swimming's governing body leapt to the defense of China's world record-breaking teen sensation Ye Shiwen on Tuesday, with the sport's president saying suspicions that she doped were "crazy" and motivated by jealousy and the IOC stressing its confidence in the drug-testing program.

"We need to get real here," said International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams. "These are the world's best athletes competing at the very highest level. We've seen all sorts of records broken already all over the place."

Adams said the top five athletes in each event, plus two others, are tested as part of "a very, very strong drug-testing program, and we are very confident if there are cheats we will catch them."

"We can't stop speculation. It is inevitably a sad result of the fact that there are people who dope and who cheat," Adams said. "It's very sad we can't applaud a great performance. Let's give the benefit of the doubt to the athletes."

Ye won the 400-meter individual medley on the opening day of the Olympic swimming competition, and was the favorite to win the 200 IM on Tuesday evening, too.

Ryan Lochte sets 2nd swimming world record in as many days

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:27:00 +0000

American Ryan Lochte has set world records on consecutive days, and he's just getting warmed up.

He added the 200-meter individual medley world record Friday to his 400 record a day earlier at the short-course world championships. He'll swim two more events, plus possibly a relay.

"There were a lot of mistakes I made and I can go a lot faster, I know that," Lochte said. "It's just a matter of time where I finally have a perfect race."

While he may have not been completely satisfied with it, Lochte's latest victory was a dominant display. He touched in 1 minute, 50.08 seconds to improve on the previous mark set by South Africa's Darian Townsend by an astounding 1.5 seconds.

Lochte's two marks represent the only individual world records set in 2010 -- either in short- or long-course -- after high-tech bodysuits were banned at the beginning of the year. By contrast, nearly every record in swimming was broken multiple times the previous two years.

Lochte finished more than two body lengths ahead of his closest competitor, Markus Rogan of Austria, who was 2.82 seconds behind. American Tyler Clary was third, 3.48 back.