Monday, August 18, 2008

Stephanie Rice broke the World Record

Article from The Star, Monday 11 August 2008

Do you know Stephanie Rice? Maybe some of you do not know her until she was highlight on Olympic Games Beijing 2008 to be the first woman to complete the 400m medley in 4 minutes 29:45 seconds. She is an Olympic gold medalist swimmer from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia who holds the world record in the 200m and 400m individual medley as of August 10, 2008. She was born on 17 June 1988 in Queensland, Australia.

Here, I would like to share some information about Stephanie Rice career. For you information, Stephanie was the gold medalist in the 200 m individual medley at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia where she defeated Olympians Brooke Hanson and Lara Carroll to claim the gold medal in the event in a time of 2:12:90, a personal best by 1.19 sec. She also won the 400 m individual medley. At the 2007 Melbourne World Championships she won a bronze medal in the 200 m individual medley in a time of 2 min 11.42 seconds, breaking the previous Australian records by a second. American Katie Hoff won the gold medal in 2:10:13, with Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe in second place. Rice once again placed third, earning her second bronze medal in the 400m individual medley final. In a new personal best time Rice finished in 4:41.19, taking .54 sec off her previous best.

Rice continued her strong performance, setting a new personal best time in the 400m individual medley at an Italian meet in June 2007. Rice went a 4:40.79, edging closer to the elusive 4:40 barrier in the event. At the 2007 Japanese Open Championships, Rice smashed her personal best time in the 400m individual medley and finally cracked the 4:40 barrier. In placing second to Zimbabwean champion Kirsty Coventry, Rice set a new Australian and Commonwealth record of 4:37.18 a personal best by 3.61 sec.

At the 2008 Australian Olympic trials, Rice broke the world record in the 400 m individual medley. Rice stopped the clock at 4 minutes 31.46 seconds, 1.43 seconds off American Katie Hoff’s mark of 4:32.89. On June 29, 2008, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Hoff retook the world record from Rice with a time of 4:31.12. Rice claimed her second world record of the meet, when she broke the 200 m individual medley world record, clocking 2 minutes 8.92 seconds to slash almost a full second off the previous record held by China's Wu Yanyan.

I can say that I was very impressed with her performance and I wish her good luck for her future in her career. I am really hoped that Malaysia also can bear a swimmer like her. She can be a role model to young people who like to be a swimmer. The important thing is we have had a spirit to be a success person in whatever field we involved.