With the swimming events of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China now complete, the 29th Olympiad can now officially go down in the Auburn record book as the most successful ever.
With the swimming events of the 2008 Olympics in
Beijing, China now complete, the 29th Olympiad can now officially go
down in the Auburn record book as the most successful ever.
Three gold medals, 13 total medals, 20 swimmers and countless record
times are just a few of the Auburn highlights that came out of the
Beijing Games. The 13 medals also gives Auburn the most among all
colleges and universities during the swimming portion of the Beijing
Olympics. California-Berkeley finished second to Auburn with 10 medals,
followed by Texas (9), Florida (8) and Southern California (7). Other
SEC schools winning swimming medals were Georgia (3) and Tennessee (2).
Former Auburn swimmer Kirsty Coventry, a native of Zimbabwe, led the
charge in China as she won an Auburn-record four medals, including a
gold medal and world record time in the 200m backstroke. She started off
the week by taking silver in the 400m individual medley and followed up
on Monday by earning silver in the 100m backstroke.
Coventry set the world record in the 100m back semifinal, giving her
the first of her two world records on the week. Action for the 2005
Auburn graduate continued on Tuesday as she earned her third silver of
the 2008 Olympics, taking second place in the 200m individual medley.
She capped off her amazing week by winning gold in the 200m backstroke,
shattering the world record along the way with a time of 2:05.24,
breaking the record time of 2:06.09 previously held by former teammate
Margaret Hoelzer.
It marked the second gold medal of her career as she also won gold in
the 200m back at the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece. Her four medals in
Beijing also giver an Auburn-record seven career Olympic medals,
breaking the record of three held by Rowdy Gaines and Per Johansson.
Also earning a gold medal in an individual event was Brazil’s Cesar
Cielo as he turned in an Olympic record time of 21.30 in the 50m
freestyle to bring home Auburn’s first medal in the event. The medal
was also the first gold swimming medal ever for Brazil in the Olympics.
For Cielo, who just completed his junior year at Auburn but has opted
to turn professional, the gold medal was his second of the Olympics
after he took bronze in the 100m freestyle.
Auburn’s final gold medal came from the United States’ Mark
Gangloff. For the second Olympics in a row, Gangloff swam in the
preliminary of the 400m medley relay, helping the U.S. qualify for what
would eventually be a gold medal. He swam the breaststroke leg in the
prelim, laying the groundwork for the second gold medal of his Olympic
career.
After coming home without a medal following the 2004 Olympics, American
Margaret Hoelzer, a native of Huntsville, Ala., made sure that would not
happen again in 2008 as she finished the Beijing Games with three
medals.
Qualifying to compete in both backstroke events at U.S. Olympic Trials,
Hoelzer quickly took advantage of the extra event as she earned the
bronze medal in the 100m backstroke, finishing right behind Coventry.
She finished on the heels of Coventry again in the 200m back, finishing
second for a silver medal.
Hoelzer got her third and final medal of the Games in the women’s
400m medley relay, swimming the backstroke leg of the United States
relay in the preliminary. Her backstroke split time was the fastest in
the preliminary.
Also earning a medal in the 400m medley relay was rising senior Matt
Targett as he swam the freestyle leg in the preliminary for Australia.
He helped give the Aussies the No. 2 seed in the final, a spot they
would hold on to for the silver medal.
The silver was Targett’s second relay medal of the Olympics as he
also swam on the Australian 400m freestyle relay. Swimming the anchor
leg on the relay, he brought Australia in behind the U.S. and France for
a bronze medal in the event.
Swimming for France on that 400m free relay was former Tiger Fred
Bousquet. Competing in his third Olympic Games, the silver medal is the
first of Bousquet’s career. He swam the third leg of the relay for
France and gave his team a large lead heading into the final 100 meters,
but American Jason Lezak tracked down Alain Bernard in the final leg to
spoil the gold medal hopes of Bousquet and France.
In all, 20 current, former and future Auburn swimmers competed in the
2008 Olympics. Current Tigers competing at the Games were Jakob Andkjaer
(Denmark), Alana Dillette (Bahamas) and Targett (Australia). Former
Tigers competing were Bousquet (France), George Bovell (Trinidad &
Tobago), Nick Bovell (Trinidad & Tobago), Cielo (Brazil), Coventry
(Zimbabwe), Gangloff (United States), Hoelzer (United States), Jeremy
Knowles (Bahamas), Gisela Morales (Guatemala), Alexei Puninski
(Croatia), Eric Shanteau (United States) and Erin Volcan (Venezuela).
Former Auburn swimmer and current assistant coach Brett Hawke, a former
Olympian from Australia, participated in the 2008 Olympics as an
assistant coach for the Brazilian national team.
Four future Tigers also competed in the Games. Incoming freshmen Adam
Brown (Great Britain), Stephanie Horner (Canada) and Arianna
Vanderpool-Wallace (Bahamas) represented their home countries along with
junior college transfer Gideon Louw (South Africa).
