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Top 100 Memories: 2000-09 ( Part VII)
Jan 28, 2010 - Craig Lord
Welcome to part VII of our trawl back in time with the seventh 10 entries in the Top 100 memories of the past decade - Jan 1, 2000 to end '09 - starting backwards from 100 downwards in chronological order from the beginning of the Millennium. The top 10 will disregard the chronological order of things and dedicate itself to events that went beyond the thrill of a singular moment or event.
Today: 40-31, the year 2006
40. January 31: Lenton (AUS) lays down the sprint free gauntlet: in 53.42, Lisbeth, better known as Libby, Lenton gets the Aussie Commonwealth Games trials in Melbourne off to a cracking start by shaving 0.10sec off the mark that had stood to Australian teammate and domestic rival Jodie Henry since the semi-finals at the Olympic Games in Athens. At Australian Olympic trials in 2004, Lenton broke Dutch triple Olympic champion (2000) Inge de Buijn's world mark. However, in Athens, Lenton missed the final and it was Henry who came good on the big occasion, defeating De Bruijn to take the Olympic crown, the first Australian to do so since Dawn Fraser's last of three in 1964. The same day in Melbourne, Jade Edminstone backed up on 30.31 world record (one of a bumper crop of 20 l/c standards in 2006) in the 50m breaststroke semis the day before by claiming top spot in the final, while Ian Thorpe clocked a solid 1:46.42 to win the 200m freestyle. It would be the Olympic champion and world record holder's last major 200m swim as things turned out (see entry No 30 below). Meantime, Lenton, coached by Swiss-born Stephan Widmer at the Fortitude Valley Pool in Brisbane, spent the year going from strength to strength: after winning the Commonwealth 50m and 100m free crowns, collecting three relays golds and silver medals in the 200m free and 100m 'fly at the Games back in Melbourne in March, she stormed to the world s/c crowns in the 50m and 100m free and 100m 'fly in Shanghai the following month, two further gold medals in relay contributing to a tally that made her woman of the meet in China and helped the Dolphins take top spot on the medals table. On August 28 in Hobart, Lenton got cracking on the next short-course season with a 55.95 world mark in the 100m butterfly that took her inside the 56.34 of Natalie Coughlin.
39. March 20: Jones jumps a generation. It had taken almost a decade for the swimming world to witness a drop of a second in the world record over 100m breaststroke from Penny Heyns (RSA) in 1996 to Jessica Hardy (USA) on 1:06.20 in the semis at world championships in 2005 on her way to silver behind Leisel Jones (AUS). Keeping up with the Jones's of the world was about to get even tougher. On February 3 at Aussie Commonwealth Games trials in Melbourne, Jones cracked the 1:06 mark with a stunning 1:05.71, two days after leaping into uncharted waters over 200m with a 2:20.54 blast that would survive until shiny suits allowed a fast-forward on the clock and ripped the thread of history in the sport to tatters in 2008-09. From Jones, that 1:05.71 was a mere warm-up, as it turned out. For on this day in March at the Games proper, the 20-year-old training partner of Lenton's under the guidance of new coach Widmer in Brisbane covered two long-course laps on breaststroke on her way to the Commonwealth crown just about as fast as Nobutaka Taguchi had on his way to Olympic gold for Japan at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Had the clock fibbed? 1:05.09. Silver went to teammate Jade Edminstone on 1:07.24 (see entry 39 for a nod to the world's best that Jones got the better of by more than 2secs). More on Jones later in our list.
38. March 22: Welshman Davies Slays Aussie Dragon. Aussie men suffer identity crisis. Even as it rode the crest of the Thorpe-Hackett wave, Australia would surely have looked to the 1,500m freestyle as the single event that epitomised the strong arm of swimming paradise. Since Jon Konrads claimed the Commonwealth crown in 1958, the 1,500m title had never been out of Aussie hands: Rose, Jackson, Windeatt, Holland, Metzker (twice), Plummer, Housman, Perkins and then Grant Hackett in 1998, 2002 and ... no, not even at a home in Melbourne 2006, the triple evading Hackett courtesy of shoulder surgery that put him out for the count for a small while well along the trajectory of a stellar career. David Davies, the 2004 Olympic bronze medallist in a European record of 14:45.95 and guided by Dave Haller and Bob Treffene, capitalised and then, true to character, paid homage to the man whose absence, along with that of Thorpe, knocked the Aussie men's team for six. By the end of the meet, British men (England, 7, Scotland 4, Wales 1) had earned 12 gold medals, South Africans 3, Papua New Guinea 1 ... and Australia one, victory in the medley relay a saving grace on the last night of finals. Among those smiling was Bill Sweetenham, the Australian at the helm of British Swimming with some most valid points to score, while his counterpart Down Under, Alan Thompson made some points that would prove to be valid too. Hackett also had gracious things to say about a fellow journeyman on a road travelled only by some of the toughest and hardest working you will find in any sport anywhere in the world. Of all the spills and thrills in Melbourne that week, Davies's effort, while not his best, was more than enough to hit his target - victory - and was among the moments that remains most vivid: and here it is as told on the day.
37. May 12: Manaudou makes an indelible mark as she marches past the milestone of a legend. Janet Evans, her windmilling style, her perpetual motion, the tiny but towering talent who trounced an East German army bulked and beefed-up to fit their status ambassadors in tracksuits for a lost cause that made victims of winners and losers alike, one way or another, had set a 400m freestyle standard on her way to the 1988 Olympic crown in 1988 that refused to fade with time. Her 4:03.85 was Beamonesque, a leap past generations to come. Chen Yan (CHN) came closest with a 4:05.00 in 1997 and then got banned for steroids, another loaded challenge beaten back down the hole full of rogue coaches, politicians and doctors from which it had slithered. At last, in 2004, the world of swimming got a glimpse of a girl who had what it would take, fair and square and by 2006 she was ready to prove it. Laure Manaudou, in Athens the first French woman ever to win an Olympic swimming crown, made good a promise when she raced to a national title in Tours in 4:03.03. The record, the oldest surviving among Olympic events (15:52.10 by Evans over 1,500m was set on March 26 1988 and would not fall until June 17, 2007) had stood since more than the eleventyonenth birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, September 22, 1988. A vast monument and a barrier too for the many who had followed and failed to scale the summit. Little wonder then that Manaudou had this to say when she climbed down from the peak: "I was quite nervous after all that had been written in the newspapers. Frankly, I didn't think I would do it." The legend herself issued a statement through USA Swimming, saying: "I want to congratulate Laure on a fantastic swim. It was an honour to have held the 400m freestyle world record for 18 years. I never felt that the record was mine, but that it belonged to all of the friends, family and coaches that helped me achieve it. Now that I am 34 years old, married and pregnant with my first child, I appreciate the accomplishments of great athletes such as Laure even more. My goal was always to make swimming a sport that was appreciated and supported globally. I am very excited that a swimmer from any country in the world can break a world record and be an Olympic gold medallist. I again congratulate Laure and look forward to personally seeing her do the same at World Championships in Melbourne in 2007." It was indeed a sensational effort from the 20-year-old Frenchwoman, coached by Philippe Lucas at Melun south of Paris and later Canet and never quite the same after she had moved on and, almost inevitably, out of the sport without fulfilling the promise that Lucas believed she held: the first sub-4-minute 400m free. The world awaits that moment yet, Federica Pellegrini (ITA) having got to a 3:59 in 2009 courtesy of a suit that boosted her performance even beyond the LZR "technological doping", as her late coach Alberto Castagnetti put it. Manaudou's first time past Evans was secured off the back of a 58.30sec opening 100m split. Where Evans swam a negative split, the second 200 metres faster than the first, the Frenchwoman was 1.69sec up on the American's pace at 100m, and 2.53sec ahead of target at half-way, on 2mins 00.00sec. The splits do the rest of the talking on pace: 28.03 (28.03) 58.30 (30.27) 1:28.90 (30.60) 2:00.00 (31.10) 2:30.85 (30.85) 3:02.07 (31.22) 3:33.05 (30.98) 4:03.03 (29.98). Manaudou hails from the small village Villieu-Loyes-Mollon, in the Ains region. She left there at "14 and a half", in the words of her mother Olga, to live with Lucas and his family in Melun, in Seine-et-Marne. From October 9, 2005, when she came of age (18) under French law, Manaudou no longer lived under the same roof as Lucas and had her own apartment. She had a boyfriend too, fellow swimmer Pierre Henry. That move prompted "a French federation source" to tell Le Monde about "concerns about the fact that she is no longer under the watchful eye of adults". The paper even contacted Claire Carrier, a child psychiatrist and sports doctor, to comment on the health of Manaudou's situation. Carrier said: "She's been robbed of her childhood. That her parents didn't react to it (the recent media storm) is worrying. They've been living apart from her for a long time now. Their daughter grew up for two years with her coach. Her parents are absent at a time when she has spoken publicly about how she feels. In contrast to the situation of Emilie Le Pennec, the Olympic champion gymnast, Laure's parents were absent from Athens." She also suggested that Lucas has a strange hold on his pupil. Manaudou rejected all of that as fabrication, while Lucas said: "Philippe Lucas is not someone who influences his athletes but one who listens to them." And Manaudou's mother: "In order to reach a high level you have to make concessions. That's all this is about. If you are not willing to make this effort, you should stay at your regional, local level." Manaudou did anything but. She strode the world and in Budapest at the European Championships that summer of 2006 she showed that she had superstar qualities: gold in the 400m free in a world record of 4:02.13; gold in the 800m free; gold in the 100m backstroke; bronze in the 200m freestyle and three relay bronzes for France. In 8:19.29 over 800m, she set a European record that wiped out another blast from the past: the last surviving GDR European record, held by Anke Moehring since 1987. Stirring stuff. Little did Manaudou (or anyone else) suspect at the time that the girl who claimed silver 8secs back would not only claim the 2008 Olympic 800m free title but also the 400m free crown coveted for Manaudou in Beijing (Rebecca Adlington, GBR), and the other Brit 5sec behind her for silver in the 400m would take the Olympic bronze in a final from which Manaudou would emerge in 8th place and almost unnoticed after calamitous events (as far as her swimming career was concerned) in the wake of momentous moments in 2007. And more of that later.
36. June 8: Early warning on Morning Finals they were not going to tell you about until nearer the day. This was the day that SwimNews broke the news that the Beijing Olympic finals would be held in the morning, prompting calls from the international swim community for coaches and swimmers to be involved in discussions. Needless to say, they were never invited and the dollar signs won the day, hands down. The good news this day was that the news came out at all in time for programmes to prepare for what would be the biggest day in many a sporting life turned upside down to suit a domestic TV audience and the pockets of a commercial broadcaster and the IOC with not scarcely a word of debate about balance, compromise or doing the right thing for the athletes.
35. August 1: Hansen turns up the heat. In the exchange of fire, titles and world records between Olympic and world champion Kosuke Kitajima (JPN) and world champion Brendan Hansen (USA), the American's 100m breaststroke blast at the US trials for the Pan Pacific Championships took him to a place down the stream that no-one but those closest to the man and the man himself, perhaps, had thought possible at that particular moment. In 2001, Roman Sludnov (RUS) had cracked the minute for the first time. Now, Hansen, coached by Eddie Reese, threatened 59, a barrier only breached by men in shiny suits and yet to be conquered in a new era of textile suits that began with a ban on p-e apparel on January 1, 2010. By spring 2008, no-one had come close, Kitajima closest, 0.4sec away, while Alex Dale Oen (NOR), in textile leggings, and Hugues Duboscq (FRA), were the last two men to join the sub-minute club before the shiny suit onslaught. Some 20 months later, Hansen's thunderous best was 9th on the all-time ranking of performers topped by a 58.58, and 14th best performance, topped by 12 efforts by men who had not got inside the minute at the dawn of 2008. Hansen would not emerge from the shiny suits episode among the winners but he had a fabulous follow-up year to his 2005 double world-title season: at trials he also set a world record in the 200m, of 2:08.74, the first sub 2:09 effort, and then at the Pan Pacs proper took that mark down to 2:08.50 (still standing at the dawn of shiny suits) in a week in which he claimed three golds, the medley relay added to his breaststroke crowns.
34. August 2: Steffen's Stunner And A Following Storm: As one storm abated (and what a storm it was, one that saw the European Champs postponed for the night as all, swimmers, coaches, managers, officials, media, spectators and technicians run for cover to the sound of laptops popping and fizzling out) another took hold on Margaret Island in Budapest. Hurricane Britta gathered momentum with a 52.66sec third-berth blast, the fastest ever relay split, to help Germany take Australia's world record in the 4x100m freestyle - a wholly unexpected 3:35.22 with Petra Dallmann, Daniela Gotz and Annika Liebs (later Lurz) - on day one. Two days later, in 53.30, the world 100m free record belonged to Britta Steffen, 0.12sec inside the standard set on January 31 by Aussie Libby Lenton (see entry 31 above). It was sensational, electric, beyond that relay warning out of the blue. If the first 50m, at 25.84, was slower than Inge de Bruijn's split on the way to the then 53.77 world record in 2000, the second 50 was a display of control and assertiveness, Steffen's stroke holding to the end. That pattern would become the hallmark of the German sprint queen. A day after the 100m Steffen joined Dallman, Daniela Samulski and Liebs in another speedy affair, a 7:50.82 4x200m free that went well beyond the speed that sum of its parts in solo events suggested was possible. After her solo 100m win, Steffen smashed her hands into the water in celebration of her achievement and recognition that an unhappy period in her life was well and truly behind her. She almost quit the sport in 2004. European junior champion over 50, 100 and 200m freestyle in 1999, she then struggled to make the transition to senior waters and could only make the heats of freestyle relays for Germany at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. Her best time in 2004 was 55.05 for 19th place on the world rankings, an improvement on 56.04 the year before. Steffen suffered an eating disorder that reflected her state of mind. As she prepared to quit the sport, Norbert Warnatzsch, the last coach of Franziska Van Almsick at the Berlin SG Neukoelln club, and Dr Frederike Janofske, the psychologist who helped to turn Franzi round for a born-again blast in 2002 (entry 76), urged Steffen not to put her career behind her but rather to put it on ice. The former East German coach told Steffen that he saw in her the same qualities and talent that many had seen in Van Almsick. During a year out, Steffen contemplated what might be, and sought help from a psychologist. She returned to full training in late summer 2005. Steffen said: "The psychologist really helped to turn me round. When I swam badly before I used to think somehow I was a bad person. Now I know how to differentiate between my swimming life and my personal life." An environmental engineering student in Berlin, Steffen said after her relay world record: "I'm satisfied with my whole life right now. I've found an inner quiet." She also had an unsurprising dream: gold in Beijing 2008. Her dream came true - and more. In the meantime, Steffen's new-found speed became a matter of speculation in a sport with a dark past of German context. The day after the 100m final, the DSV, Germany's swim federation, revealed that it was to blood test all its swimmers before and after all four altitude camps planned for the national team and had invited NADA (its national anti-doping agency) and WADA to join the exercise in an effort to prove the legitimacy of swims such as Steffen's. The information gathered would form part of a swimmer's blood "passport". In 2009, the FINA Bureau would agree to pursue the same path several years after another Bureau stated a similar intention. One of the first questions put to Norbert Warnatzsch, Steffen's Berlin coach, after that 53.30 was "what about doping?". "I was furious," said Warnatsch. "I swear that she is clean. She has changed all aspects of her training. She has lost 10kg in weight over the last year. She has taken on a new attitude in life and is a more relaxed person. She's worked very hard." As a former East German coach, however, Warnatzsch surely understood why the question was put by the German media and why it was necessary to put it. Orjan Madsen, a Norwegian with close German ties and then head Germany coach, understood and said: "We (Germany) have a bad history of doping. The only solution is to declare why our swimmers are as fast as they are. That's just the way it is. We have to check blood, we have to make ourselves available, and will do at the start and end of each altitude camp." Down Under, Libby Lenton, whose record Steffen broke, accepted the moment graciously, telling reporters in Brisbane: "People thought I was a complete surprise when I dropped a full second off my time, there are always going to be a few surprises but the way she has been consistently racing at this meet is no real surprise." Asked about the 53-sec barrier, she added: "It is close, that is the next step that women's sprinting will take. Whether that is me or one of the Germans or one of the other Australians that is the next barrier we will break through eventually. I don't know whether it will be in the next couple of years or in the next six months, but I think that is what a lot of the girls are looking towards." In April 2007, Lenton would crack the 53sec mark but her effort would not count as a world record...
33. August 17: Flying in tandem. Victorious in Victoria at the Pan Pacific Championships, Michael Phelps (USA) and Jessica Schipper (AUS) set 200m 'fly marks in back-to-back finals. First up, Schipper, coached by Ken Wood, raced inside target pace from the blocks - 28.35, 1:00.11, 1:32.46, and 2:05.40. "I heard the crowd, and it really helped me, so thank you so much! It's just amazing to break the world record, I can't believe it!" Sort of. She had swum inside the WR at the world championships a year earlier - only to find herself nursing silver behind the disputed hand of Poland's Olympic champ Otylia Jedrzecjak (entry 43). Schipper, unassuming and a delight to chat to, grew up tough, and not by choice: at 22, she bought a house and moved out of her parents' home for the first time, meaning, as she put it, that she no longer had to "fight for my dinner" with her triplet brothers. Michael Phelps had sisters and male swimmers the world over are ever so grateful. His superhero fast-fisted flight to the outer orbit of sport was well on track in summer 2006. On this day in Victoria, Phelps sets the 14th solo WR of his career, and fourth over his signature event, the 200m butterfly, in which he earned his first Olympic selection at 15 in 2000, in which he gained access to his first Olympic final, in which he set his first world record. The time, 1:53.80, is faster that three of the four world records held by Mark Spitz on freestyle. Phelps said: "It's a good start to the meet. I've wanted to do a best time in that event for a while now. I saw the other guys do well this morning, so I knew it would be close at the 150, but Bob [Bowman] and I were talking about having a strong kick off the last wall. I did that and was able to build some good momentum." Momentum enough to take down the 200 IM world mark in 1:55.84, ahead of teammate Ryan Lochte, on 1:56.11, enough to win the 400m IM crown in 4:10.47 and help both US relay teams win, the 4x100m free in a world record of 3:12.46 with Neil Walker, Cullen Jones and Jason Lezak, the man who would keep alive a chance of eight gold medals for Phelps at the 2008 Olympic Games. Lochte, coached by Gregg Troy in Florida, was also a member of the 4x200m free and by the time the Pan Pacs rolled round had been hailed man of the meet at the world s/c championships in Shanghai back in April, when he claimed four solo crowns - 100m and 200m backstroke, 200m and 400m medley. Three of those wins produced world records, the backstroke finals laying down the first sub-50sec and sub 1:50 efforts, in 49.99 and 1:49.05, the 200m IM a 1:53.31. Both Lochte and Phelps also had a role to play on backstroke at Pan Pacs, which leads us to ...
32. August 20: Peirsol confirms Phelps as being human after all. When Phelps is on the start sheet, sharks tremble. Aaron Peirsol, coached by Eddie Reese, is made of sterner stuff. The Olympic and world champion showed it with this win over Phelps in the 200m in Victoria: 26.97, 55.85, 1:24.87, and a world record of 1:54.44. Phelps claimed silver in 1:56.81, 0.05sec slower than it took Lenny Krayzelburg (USA) to win the 2000 Olympic crown and faster than any Olympic win before that and any world crown in history barring those won by Peirsol up to that date. But the king was in a pool beyond in home-stroke waters. Breaking world records, said Peirsol, then with six solo l/c marks under his belt, "never gets old ... I felt great the whole way and I'm really happy with it. This crowd was really going, so thanks so much, you let me know I was on pace. I'm elated." Lochte took the silver behind Peirsol in the 100m. A year later, he would have much more to say in the 200m.
31. November 20: Thorpedo disarms. Rumours ripple from Australia that Ian Thorpe is about to retire. Sure enough, the next day, the fastest mid-distance freestyler the world has know confirms the drop. In the days that follow, tributes pour in and on Shane Gould's birthday news emerges of the part played in the passing of another legend of the pool by the only woman ever to have won five solo Olympic medals at one Games (three of those gold). Here is how events unfolded as told by us:
As things turned out, Thorpe had one more battle to get through before he would be free to follow a life not only as "Thorpe, the swimmer".
The Top 100:
