Thompson Puts Hat In Ring, Bidding For More Gold American Swimmer Has Four Golds, Two Events To Go At World Championships
Jenny Thompson, winner of four gold medals at the World Swimming Championships, can win two more - but her family will be satisfied with one.
Every time Thompson has received a medal around her neck, she also has been given an Australian bush hat.
“I’m thinking about opening a little stand and selling them,” Thompson said. “No - I’m going to give them to my family. I have five people, so I need one more.”
The five-time Olympic gold medalist is in superb condition and confident.
Her butterfly leg in Friday’s U.S. 400-meter medley relay was the fastest in history in the event. Her 57.89 second leg beat the 58.04 by Mary T. Meagher at the 1984 Olympics.
The team just missed a world record, winning in 4:01.93, .26 seconds off the mark set by China’s drug-tainted team at Rome in 1994. One member of that Chinese team, Lu Bin, tested positive for a banned substance shortly after the meet.
Thompson still has the 800 relay, one in which the U.S. is not favored based on individual performances in the race.
In the 50-meter freestyle, Amy Van Dyken is the Olympic champion, but on form shown this week, Thompson is racing fast enough to beat Van Dyken.
China failed to show up for the relay preliminaries Friday and gave no reason, but the fact that four of its women were sent home for drug offenses probably left the team stretched.
Kurt Grote, a 24-year-old Stanford Medical School student, won the 200 breaststroke.
Grote was timed in 2:13.40 to 2:13.42 for Frenchman Jean-Christophe Sarnin, while Olympic champion Norbert Rozsa of Hungary was another .17 seconds back.
While Thompson leads the women’s individual medal count with her four golds, Australian Michael Klim has become his country’s most productive swimmer at any world championship and the most productive male in the meet so far.
He claimed a third gold Friday, and his second in an individual event, winning the 100-meter butterfly. Klim clocked 52.25, only .10 seconds off the world record he set at Brisbane in October.