Coughlin, McGregory swap backstroke records
OMAHA, Neb. – Natalie Coughlin stood on deck watching Hayley McGregory erase her world record in the 100-meter backstroke. Coughlin decided she wanted it back.
Two minutes later, it was hers again.
Coughlin reclaimed the mark by winning her preliminary heat in 59.03 seconds Monday at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials.
One heat earlier, McGregory finished first in 59.15, bettering Coughlin’s mark of 59.21 set Feb. 17 in a prelim heat at the Missouri Grand Prix.
“I don’t think you ever expect to go a world record, but it happened,” McGregory said. “Really cool that it’s possible to happen in the prelims.”
She had barely climbed out of the pool before Coughlin got in and electrified the crowd again.
“The original goal is just to make top 16 and conserve, but I really didn’t want her to have it for very long,” Coughlin said.
McGregory didn’t. Her glory lasted 2 minutes until Coughlin reasserted her dominance as the defending Olympic champion. Coughlin won five medals at the 2004 Athens Games.
“Really, the only goal of this meet is to put yourself on the Olympic team,” she said.
Their efforts made Coughlin and McGregory the two leading qualifiers for the evening semifinals, which involve 16 swimmers. The back-to-back records were the 41st and 42nd out of 46 that have been set by swimmers wearing Speedo’s LZR Racer suit since its debut in mid-February.
They pulled back in the evening semifinals, clearly wanting to save something for their head-to-head matchup today.
Meanwhile, Katie Hoff made it 2for 2 at the U.S. Olympic trials.
Showing no signs of tiring, the Baltimore teenager gutted out another grueling win, rallying to win the 400-meter freestyle just 24 hours after she set a world record in the 400 individual medley.
Hoff became the first U.S. swimmer to lock up two races in Beijing, but there’s no time to savor her accomplishment. She’s already done about a mile of races in Omaha and plans to compete in four more before the week is out, pursuing an Olympic program just slightly less ambitious than the one Michael Phelps will attempt in hopes of knocking off Mark Spitz.
“The plan was to take it out strong with nice, easy speed,” the 19-year-old Hoff said. “I don’t think I had as much as I was hoping, but I brought it back real well.”
As for Phelps, the birthday boy had a relatively light day as he turned 23, easily qualifying for today’s final in the 200 freestyle to set up another showdown with Ryan Lochte. On the meet’s opening night, both eclipsed the old world record in the 400 IM, but Phelps touched the wall first.