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Top 100 Memories: 2000-09 ( Part VIII)
Feb 8, 2010 - Craig Lord
After a short break to answer the call of the current, we return to the past with part VIII, the next 10 entries, in our the Top 100 memories of the past decade - Jan 1, 2000 to end '09. We're counting 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: 21-30, the year 2007
30. March 25. Park Life. South Korea has a new household name in Tae-hwan Park, when the 17-year-old took the 400m free world title from 2005 champion Grant Hackett in 3mins 44.03 and became the first from his country to lift a global swimming crown. He did so in magnificent fashion, signalling the start of a new era in post-Thorpe days distance swimming his victory at Melbourne 2007 coming off a blistering final 50m that swept him from fifth to first within a 30-metre stretch, that lifted him to sixth fastest all-time. Sleek and smooth in style, flat in body position and able to turn on the speed when most needed, Park, coached by Roh Min-sang, placed himself in the glaring gap between Ian Thorpe's world record (3:40.07) and the pack, silver going to US-based Oussama Mellouli, of Tunisia, on 3:45.12, with Hackett third on 3:45.43. That latter effort was sensational in itself, a comeback moment for the Olympic 1,500m champion who had spent much of 2006 in rehabilitation after shoulder surgery. Park stopped an Aussie run: a Dolphin had won the 400m crown ever since Kieren Perkin's stunner of a world-record blast in Rome 1994. Almost 13 years on and Park ripped about 2sec off Mellouli and Hackett over the final two laps, turning at 300m in 2:50.59 to the the Tunisian's 3:49.23 and the reigning champion's 3:49.44. With 50 metres to go he was still almost a second behind Mellouli. He finished 0.82sec ahead of him and 1.13sec ahead of Hackett. Park said: "When I saw my name on the screen I forgot how I was feeling. I am the first Korean world champion in (swimming) history. Mentally, I feel really tired ...". Hackett's verdict: "He's a force to be reckoned with." Thorpey, up in the stands, told SwimNews: "It was a really strange race to watch. It looked really awkward. It didn't flow right. Park came back strong at the end but Grant will be disappointed with that." Was he pleased that they were all 4-plus seconds away from his best effort? "I couldn't care less ... I hope they get to that record very soon so that I can just move on." The morning heats of the 400m free were the fastest in history, for men and women, with France's Laure Manaudou, the woman who in 2006 had taken down Janet Evans' world mark, now the one to finally get past Australian Tracey Wickham's 1978 championship record, of 4:06.28, with a 4:05.29 (58.18; 2:00.20; 3:02.96), ahead of a field that saw eight women race a 4:08 and three of those miss the final. Park, meantime, would go on to win the 2008 Olympic crown and land financial rewards of a level known by few in the history of the sport.
29. March 28. Manaudou marches to the peak (beyond which there may be a plateau or a steep drop). As we look back on the events of the 2007 world championships in Melbourne, there can be no question that if Libby Lenton (entry 21) and her five gold medals made her a candidate for "woman of the meet", then the rival to that title was surely Laure Manaudou (FRA). On day one of the championships, she followed up a 4:05.29 heats of the 400m free (taking her past Wickham's 1978 championship record, of 4:06.28) with a 4:02.61 victory, second fastest 0.48sec behind her own world record, that left her boasting five of the best 10 times ever over eight long-course laps. Manaudou will go down in history as the middle-distance ace who charged her generation with the belief that Evans was attainable, that the times that had swept women into world and Olympic finals over the previous 20 years ought now to be a thing of the past. The woman who made the world believe that a 4-minute 400m free for a woman is possible (in 2010 that remains a target in a sport now void of suits that boosted performance to such a degree as to snap the thread with the sport's history on the clock). Poland's Otylia Jedrzejczak, Olympic silver medallist behind Manaudou and still trying to get on terms in what have been troubled times (the week before the championships, Jedrzejczak, Olympic 200m butterfly champion, was found guilty by a Polish court in her absence of unintentionally causing the crash that killed her 19-year-old brother Szymon - and received a nine-month suspended sentence and 270 hours of community service) raced in her brother's memory to an astonishing 4:04.23, third-best ever and 0.38sec outside Evans' epic. Manaudou put down her marker in the 400m free with an opening 27.35sec split down the first 50m that drowned rivals in the wash an average of 1.5sec back on the way to a time that is as fast as the quickest man was in late 1970. Said Manaudou of the 4-minute barrier: "I have not dreamt about it but I do think of it, for sure. I will not quit until I have managed it." Sadly, not long after, she did in fact quit as far as the sub-4-minute mission was concerned. But on this day, March 28 in Melbourne, Manaudou was to be found travelling at the speed of Spitz over 200m freestyle. Here's a taste of how I penned it on the day: "Ultimate Olympic legend Mark Spitz left Melbourne too soon today. Had he hung around a few more hours, he would have witnessed a time-warp in motion: a woman racing within a stroke of the time in which he set his first world record over 200m freestyle and the man who covets his 'all-time-greatest' crown cover 200m butterfly faster than his winning freestyle swim at the Munich Games in 1972. How time flies. A day after Michael Phelps confined Ian Thorpe to history over 200m freestyle in 1min 43.86sec and on a night when three more world records fell at the Rod Laver Arena, the 21-year-old American soared to dizzying heights with a 1min 52.09sec victory over 200m butterfly that marked the biggest improvement - a massive 1.62sec inside the time he clocked in Missouri last month - in the world record in that event for 48 years." At the start of the 207 championships, German Franziska Van Almsick's monuments to four-lap freestyle racing stood at 1:56.78 (1994) and 1min 56.64sec (2002). Discounting the banned Chinese Lu Bin, no other woman had got below 1:57 until another German, Annika Lurz, clocked 1:56.73 in November 2006. In the semis in Melbourne, Italian Federica Pellegrini, Olympic silver medallist in Athens, cracked Van Almsick with a 1:56.47 world record.The Italian's first entry in the world-record books would last 24 hours. In the final, Manaudou's derring-do and pace were monumental moments for the future of women's swimming. The 20-year-old claimed the crown in 1:55.52, that brave new world reached via a 56.24sec half-way split, feet on the wall, that would have beaten Kornelia Ender, of the GDR, over a flat 100 metres back in 1975. Manaudou's warm-up consisted of sitting on a seat at the end of lane 4, staring at the pool for the best part of 45 minutes. She then did a 600m paced swim, without much variation and break-up, and got out, her focus singular. In the race, Lurz paced almost the same swim, turning first at 50m in 27.06, second at 56.51 and ending with a 1:55.68 German record and silver lining, with Pellegrini left in limbo and nursing a bronze on 1:56.97. Freestyle legend Don Schollander did something similar in Oak Park back in 1967: the first sub-1:56sec 200m freestyle. By the end of the meet, Manaudou had claimed gold in the 200m and 400m free, silver the in the 800m free and 100m backstroke and helped France to a national-highlight of a bronze in the 4x200m free. On May 7, rumours spread like wildfire that Manaudou was about to leave her long-time mentor Philippe Lucas. A day later, she was quoted as saying that she wanted to have a baby with Luca Marin, the Italian medley swimmer, and on May 9, Manaudou confirmed that she would move to be with her latest lover at the start of a new life in Italy. On May 11, Lucas announced to the French media that he feared for Manaudou's "Ethical Welfare", suggesting that she was bound for a club and people in Italy that had been at the centre of a doping scandal in the football world. A war of words ensued between Italian and French factions and the media in those two countries. It would not last. Neither did the love affair. By December that year, Laure could be found chucking a ring at Luca, who in turn was linked to Pellegrini. Many a bitter comment was made by the 200m and 400m Olympic champions. Farce, scandal, call it what you will but suffice it to note that the episode did for Manaudou as an Olympic contender in 2008. She left Italy on her way to three different coaches before Beijing beckoned. In some ways, she did well to manage a place in the Olympic 400m final from which she emerged last in a season that saw Pellegrini break the world record before learning a lesson behind Rebecca Adlington, Katie Hoff and Joanne Jackson in Beijing before becoming the first - and last - swimmer in history to win an Olympic crown, in the 200m free, while wearing two suits.
28. March 29. Two into one does go. This was the day on which Brent Hayden of Canada shared the blue-ribband 100m free crown with Italian defender Filippo Magnini on 48.43 in a world-title final in which 0.38sec split first to last. Neither the world nor Olympic titles over 100m had ever been shared by two men before. Among women, such a moment had been witnessed once: back in 1984, Americans Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseiffer shared Olympic honours at a home Olympics in Los Angeles. The bronze went to Australian Eamon Sullivan in 48.47 in a battle that marked something of a changing of the guard for sprint freestyle, with the fourth place going to Brazil's Cesar Cielo (48.51) and Pieter van den Hoogenband, the Olympic champion who had never timed his fastest moments to coincide with a world championship, sixth on 48.63. The medals were presented by none other that Alexander Popov, the double Olympic champion of 1992 and 1996, before both Canadian and Italian anthems were played. A year later and the world record would stand at 47.50 to Alain Bernard, who did not make the Melbourne final, and one year further on would stand at 46.91 to Cielo as the suit wars circus of shiny poly booster apparel reached its climax over eight days in which 43 world records highlighted the need for integrity to be restored by those who govern aquatic sports. Neither Magnini, coached by Claudio Rossetti, nor Hayden (4th in the 2009 final), coached by Tom Johnson could be said to have been winners in the shiny suits era, both men in the chorus of world-class swimmers who declared that they would prefer to see the shiny suits sunk. Worth noting too that in 2009 Sullivan, Bernard, Cielo, Hoogenband and Popov were all quoted as siding with those who wished the sport of swimming to return to textile and an environment in which the efforts of swimmers, coaches and others could not be overshadowed by the suit being worn. In Melbourne, Hayden became the first Canadian in 21 years to win a world swim title. On May 26, 2007 the mayor of Mission declared "Brent Hayden Day". As well, the Mission Marlins renamed their swim meet to the "Brent Hayden Invitational" and a mural on the wall at the Mission Leisure Center was unveiled.
27. March 30. Lochte leaps. At Melbourne 2007, Aaron Peirsol (USA) became the first man inside 53sec in the 100m backstroke. Three days later, the double Olympic champion suffered his first loss in the 200m in nearly seven years. The gold went to the second-most versatile swimmer in the world (after Phelps), Ryan Lochte, in a world record of 1:54.32. Lochte also won three silvers at Melbourne, behind Peirsol in the 100m backstroke and behind Phelps in the 200m and 400m, and claimed gold and a world record as a member of the 4x200m freestyle squad. Melbourne marked a breakthrough week in a career that epitomised the importance to USA success of domestic rivalry geared always at being the best of the best. At one of many an autograph signing session after Lochte returned to Florida, where he was and is coached by Gregg Troy, Lochte revealed to school kids at Raleigh that he keeps a framed autographed hat signed by Pablo Morales. Lochte met the butterfly legend when he was just 8 back at the 1992 Olympic trials as Morales qualified for a Games at which he would lift the Olympic crown over 100m beyond years of heartache and eight years after first representing the US in Olympic waters. "He gave me an Olympic cap," Lochte said. "He signed it 'To Ryan, keep on flying'." Lochte did just that. Asked what he was thinking at the moment he got past Peirsol in Melbourne, Lochte said: "I don't know what was going on in my mind. Probably, 'What's for dinner?' At 25 to go I saw the [giant TV screen] and knew I was level [with Peirsol]." He then dug deep and focussed only on doing the best he could do. It was good enough for gold. Lochte looked up. WR. "I did a double take," Lochte told the kids back home before telling the media there to capture the next moment where a young boy in the crowd might be inspired for glory years on: "I was in these kids' shoes - I hope they gain from me being here."
26. March 30. No Keeping Up With Miss Jones. Leisel Jones wowed her home crowd and the world of swimming as she swam a controlled 200m breaststroke in a class of her own to retain the world title in 2:21.84, 0.12sec slower than the 2005 winning time and 1.30sec outside her world record. A little down on best and still so far ahead is what made this moment so special: the silver was shared, for the first time in world championship history, by Britain's Kirsty Balfour and America's Megan Jendrick, on 2:25.94. Jones switched on the burners down lap 3 of 4 to gain a breathtaking 1.79sec on European champion Balfour and Jendrick (nee Quann), the 2000 Olympic champion over 100m. Balfour, Kendrick and South Africa's Suzaan Van Biljon were the only three who refused to wobble and on the way home in the wake of a woman setting a pace that the world seemed incapable of dreaming about, let alone matching. Jones was Miss forward-motion in motion, the model for how to drop the dead-zone in a stroke apt to be the most difficult of all in the battle against drag. Part of her success story was down to the work of coach Stephan Widmer, who also features in entry 21, below.
25. March 31. Thorpe faces his last swimming battle. The news dropped during morning heats at Melbourne 2007: Ian Thorpe, the five-times Olympic gold medallist, had showed "abnormal levels" of two banned substances in a doping test conducted last year before he retired, according to a L'Equipe report. Head Dolphins coach Alan Thompson woke Thorpey up in his hotel to deliver the bad news. It was then that it became obvious that the news was indeed new to Thorpey himself and that the "case", as such, should never have come to light under WADA rules. The French paper, doing the thing that it must as a leading sports publication, has got hold of the details of an internal laboratory report of the king filed on a fair few world-class athletes around the world but never actually see the light of day. Anti-doping officials in Australia had thrown out the "case" (that never necame an official case) for lack of scientific proof, the French paper claimed. No positive result, nothing to report. The test dated back to May 2006, at a time when Thorpe was recovering from a broken hand and heading back into Australia's programme at a middle-distance freestyle training camp in North Queensland. Later that year he would retire. On April 1, at 3pm, Ian Thorpe entered the most difficult press conference of his life at the Lexus Centre opposite the Rod Laver Arena here in Melbourne.
Here is his opening address before he took questions from the media:
"Yesterday at 8 am I was contacted by a representative of Swimming Australia to tell me that there was a report on the website of the French Newspaper L?Equippe that a doping test that I had undertaken had returned an unusual level of testosterone and a hormone, and that there had been proceedings in the Court of Arbitration for Sport between ASADA and FINA in relation to the test. This as you will appreciate was a complete shock to me. I had no previous knowledge of any result of this kind and I did not understand how a test result that supposedly related to me, which must have been undertaken some time ago given my retirement, could be being leaked to a French newspaper when I did not know about it.
I was subsequently contacted by and met with ASADA who advised me and I can now confirm the following:
ASADA were at pains to re-assure me that I have not failed a drug test and they made it clear to me that any suggestion that is being made to this effect is just plain wrong.
This is why I find the media speculation that I have cheated to be so upsetting. I am deeply alarmed that information about my test result was leaked to the press before I was informed of it. The press receiving this information before an athlete jeopardises the whole integrity of the testing process.
What is even more troubling is that the test result is one for which I understand there are many innocent explanations.
Much agony and soul-searching later, On November 6, 2007, FINA dropped any case against Thorpe, after considering evidence supplied, rather belatedly, by the the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) into an adverse finding in May 2006 that showed elevated levels of testeostrone. The FINA Panel of doping experts has concluded that Thorpe has no case to answer. "We are not continuing the case,'' FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu said. "There's not sufficient evidence to take further action. We have informed CAS (the Court of Arbitration for Sport) and ASADA." FINA had threatened to take the case to CAS if it believed there was evidence of a doping violation. None was found in the case of a swimmer who was among the strongest advocates for more stringent anti-doping tests and blood testing in sport, a man who had been ahead of his game and rivals throughout a career as man and boy.
24. April 1. Hoff on high. Katie Hoff fells her first global mark with a 4:32.89 victory in the 400m medley crown (five days after taking the 200m title in 2:10.13), 0.63sec ahead of Kirsty Coventry (ZIM). With two golds already in the kit bag on the way to a last-day victory, Hoff (USA), coached by Paul Yetter, said: "I'm still in disbelief. I was so focussed on breaking the World Record in the 200IM that I completely forgot about the 400! I'm so excited to swim well. I've been working really hard over the last year." Hoff, defending champion, broke the seven-year-old WR set by Yana Klochkova (UKR) at the Sydney Olympics on her way to four historic Olympic crowns (2000 ad 2004). The gap to silver behind Hoff was immense: Yana Martynova (RUS) in 4:40.14, with bronze going to Stephanie Rice (AUS) in 4:41.19. A year later, Rice would break the world record on her way to the Olympic crown at the onset of the shiny suits era while wearing a 50% poly bodysuit. Hoff put in some fine performances in Beijing 2008, starting off with a silver in the 400m free but was not at the best that some had predicted for her. In the mix of the matters that affected her was a suit that in late 2009 she would say she was glad to see the back of.
23. April 1. "The greatest performance of all time". Hard to know which day to pick as the one that highlighted the best of Michael Phelps as he shot further into outer orbit, so I chose the day that the sporting Gods delivered motivation in the form of a heats DQ for the US medley relay that deprived him of a likely eighth gold medal at the world championships in Melbourne at the end of a week in which his efforts were described in these terms by US head coach Mark Schubert: "There has been nobody that's been not just as dominant but as versatile. His performance this week was the greatest performance of all-time. I don't really look at it by medals but by the dominance and by the records and the way he handled it from ever to event to event. I just didn't notice any weak points ... and then (in the 100 'fly) when he goes to touch the wall and his head is clearly behind but he still finds a way to get his hands on the wall. He can do it from behind, he can do it from the front, he can do it when its close, he can do it when its not close." Asked which was the best of all his efforts, Schubert said: "It's very difficult to say but when you shatter the world record in the 200 'fly like he did and beat the field by 3sec in a world championship, that's mind-boggling." The unfolding of a blueprint put in place by coach Bob Bowman was a thing of rare beauty. Phelps’ display was all but faultless, with five world records, four of them on his own: 1:43.86 in the 200m freestyle eclipsed the retired Thorpe’s 2001 mark and elevated the American to yet a new height; 1:52.09 over 200m butterfly (no other man had swim inside 1:54.50); 1:54.98 and 4:06.22 in the 200m and 400m medley (no other man had swum inside 1:56 and 4:09); and 7:03.24 in the 4x200m freestyle with Ryan Lochte, Klete Keller and Peter Vanderkaay. Phelps was hardly idle on the last day of racing in Melbourne after that medley relay disappointment. His Seven golds were sealed with a 4:06.22 world record that was stunning to witness. In a final that saw three men race below 4:10 in the same 400 IM race for the first time, Phelps turned in 55.05 on 'fly, 0.52sec inside his own world record pace. Ryan Lochte, world record holdr over 200m backstroke then took a 0.03sec lead by the 200m mark, both outside record pace on 1:58.15 and 1:58.18. By the end of breaststroke, which Phelps has clearly improved by a vast margin over the past two years, he was 1.03sec inside his world record pace. A lap later on freestyle, the gain was 1.39sec and the deal was done: 4:06.22, 2.04sec inside the previous mark. It was the biggest improvement in standards since Hungarian legend Tamas Darnyi in Perth 1991. Lochte led the race for the spoils, on 4:09.74, with Italy's Luca Marin, a man who was some 10m back from Phelps on the butterfly leg, third on 4:09.88 on his way to making bigger news outside the pool later that year (entry 28 above). For Beijing 2008, there would be "still more work to be done - next year will be a harder environment. It's a case of just rolling on from here." Rolling on to eight out of eight in Beijing. At the heart of Phelps' great week in Melbourne was a dolphin kick out of starts and turns that was a talking point of the world championships, the significance of it big enough to make it into our top 10 with a difference. Asked how he managed that massive dolphin drive off the wall, Phelps said: 'I just go by feel. I know that's one of my strengths and if you have a strength you should use it. I wanted the second 50 to be 28sec (200m 'fly). I was thinking about that in the warm-up pool today and I knew It would have to come from my legs." What was the secret of his speed? 'I've got no secret, it's just training, training, training and I think I showed that. I was not nervous, it's a sort of excitement that makes me sprint out." More to come? "Sure. It's what I've trained for." The swiftest 200m butterfly effort ever was 'a little shocking', he added, even more so than felling Thorpe's standard, he reckoned. It had made him feel 'like a 12-year-old again'. Those in the next lanes looked almost tired of living.
22. April 3. The Trouble with boys - in the next lane. This was the day at the Duel in the Pool in Sydney (USA Vs AUS) that Libby Lenton clocked 52.99, the first sub 53sec 100m free by a woman. The time would not count as a world record. The reason, as confirmed by FINA, was clear: the question mark over ratification came purely from the presence of Michael Phelps in the next lane. Lenton's effort, off a blistering 25.26sec split, was the lead-off leg in a fun relay swim. All other race conditions were as normal, with full officialdom and electronic timing in place. Phelps clocked 48.72, off a 23.96 split. Rule SW10.15 states: No pace-making shall be permitted, nor may any device be used or plan adopted which has that effect." FINA said: "This is not something they can decide on the poolside in Sydney. The case will be looked at when the form is sent in to Fina, like all other records. If there are odd circumstances, that (sic) will have to be considered." Lenton, coached by Stephan Widmer, handled the matter graciously when confirmation came through that she would have to go again at that 53sec barrier (which she did and made history doing so). She had had a great season and would soon become Mrs Trickett but as Lenton she had won five gold medals at a home world championships in Melbourne to join American Tracey Caulkins as the only other woman to have won five gold medals at a single World Championship. Lenton claimed the 50m (24.53) and 100m freestyle (53.40), 100m butterfly (57.15) and two relay titles. The 4x100m medley alongside Emily Seebohm, 15, Jones and Jessica Schipper, champion in the 200m butterfly, produced a world record of 3:55.74 that trounced the USA by 2.57sec and left the rest of the world gasping for breath in another pool. "I would have been happy with one. If someone had told me I would have won five gold medals I would have pretty much laughed in their face," said Lenton.
21. August 5. Swedish sprint day. On this day at the Paris Open, Stefan Nystrand and Therese Alshammar clocked the second fastest times ever over 100m and 50m freestyle respectively, in 47.91 and 24.23, the world records remaining in the hands of Dutch former teammates Pieter van den Hoogenband and Inge de Bruijn. Two days before, Nystrand had emerged from winning the 50m freestyle to say that he was working on improving his 100m speed. Fast work: in a blistering 47.91sec (off a 22.72 split that would have won many a national championship over 50) he broke the dam of comfort build up by the flying Dutchman in 2000 and 2002 with a storming victory to become the second man ever to break 48sec. Van den Hoogenband swam below 48sec three times: 47.84 at Sydney 2000 and 47.86 and 47.97 at the Berlin European championships of 2002. Nystrand, Stockholm-born and coached by Anne Forsell at the SK Neptun club, split inside Van den Hoogenband’s 23.16 world-record pace (but then several had done that) but shy of Roland Schoeman’s 22.42 from Melbourne 2005. On a scorching day, the sun beating down on the waters of the Lagardere Racing Clube de France pool and the breeze brushing the surface of the water just enough to form ripples, Nystrand raced as though in a wind-tunnel, head deep, bow wave combing his head, droplets of wash sent crashing into the air as he wind-milled his way to into the world of prime contenders. Going into the water, his best time had been 48.70, off a relay lead and looked up to world champion Brent Hayden of Canada and Alain Bernard of France as the men to chase. Now they must chase him. Bernard, who had also rocketed up the world rankings with a 48.12 in June that equalled the then second-fastest all time alongside Filippo Magnini, of Italy, put in a very respectable 48.54, with Hayden on a a very solid 48.79. Nystrand, 25, beat them on the way out and beat on the way home, with splits of 22.72 and 25.19 (close to the sub 25sec homecoming split principal that was the key to longevity of dominance by Alexander Popov and his coach Gennadi Touretski for so long). Bernard came home in 25.37, with Hayden on 25.36. Recalling his 100m performance at Melbourne 2007 (10th in 48.92, off a 23.68 split that confirms his Paris gain to have been almost entirely on the way out), Nystrand said: "It was a season best at the time. Maybe I went out wrong and should have swum more like here today. It's a question of going back and looking at what we did wrong and putting it right." On the world record, he asked the media: how far was I out? Just 0.07sec. "Why didn't I go seven hundreds better now," he said with a smile, his head shaking, his mouth foaming at the corners with dryness until a kind soul brought him bottled water. Nystrand added that he was "pretty amazed, really shocked. I didn't think it would be that fast. Maybe 48.5 tops". He explained: "I started to have a better diet and [have been] sleeping more. I was pretty lazy with sleep and missed a lot of sessions. I was working at 25 per cent. But now [more recently] I got better and better. I have not missed one single exercise [practice] in the past two years." Consistency has become a daily habit. Asked about technique, he said: "Everything feels better. I have experimented with technique and it feels better than in Melbourne. The starts too, I've been working on that since March and it's getting better and better." When he looked up at the board to see 47.91, he thought: "I don't believe it: it's like Christmas." He had reached a new dimension, and had become a favourite for Beijing gold, one reporter noted in the mixed zone. "Yes, but it's a long time, a whole year. Much can happen," came the reply. Indeed much did happen: the shiny suits era set in and the light and lithe Swede (qualities he shared with Alshammar) was not among the biggest of beneficiaries. We will never know whether he might have been. A change in the sprint order was on the cards but the suits-driven revolution that unfolded was, in Paris, August 2007, known only to those who had an inkling of what was coming: the LZR, followed by suit wars. Alshammar was born in Solna 1977, daughter to 7th placed Olympic breaststroke swimmer Britt-Marie Smedh and Krister Alshammar. Their daughter's career is one of the longest in swimming history to be found at the highest level of her sport, 1991the year she won her first national short course title, over 50 m backstroke, 2000 the year in which she claimed two Olympic silver sprint freestyle medals, 2009 a year in which she was still in the hint for world titles. Her coaches have included Cal Bentz. Alshammar made headlines when she revealed a tattoo in the very small of her back, below what would be the top of her bikini bottoms, in a place that Sports Illustrated once described as being "a spot where a paramour might place his hand if he were dancing with her". The tattoo reads: DIVA. "Diva means goddess in Latin, you know," Alshammar told the magazine, sending the US reporter into a frenzy over a woman once voted Sweden's sexiest woman by a domestic magazine (and some claim that one...) "The tattoo was done in the spring of 1997 in Arizona, while I was visiting schools. I showed it to one photographer, and it became a big thing in the Swedish papers. That's all right. That's what I think I am. I think all women are divas," said Alshammar, an aquatic diva if ever there was one.
The Top 100:
Part I: 91 - 100, the year 2000.
Part II: 81 - 90, the year 2001.
Part III: 71 - 80, the year 2002.
Part IV: 61 - 70, the year 2003.
Part V: 51 - 60, the year 2004.
