Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

I ran out of room in last week’s blog to talk about the women above 25 that will be in the hunt for medals come Beijing. I’m adhering to a strict 1000 word limit because my doctor has advised that I spend at least one half hour period a day away from my computer. Since my last post, Timedfinals has posted excellent articles that pertain to the topic at hand. The first is a description by Melvin Stewart of an interview he submitted to concerning Dara Torres. It’s a good read particularly for Mel’s spirited defense of Dara. The second is an interview with distance veteran Erik Vendt by David Cromwell. Erik probably has no idea who I am although he definitely threw a couple words my way when I was fourteen in the warm up pool at Brown University. I think I mumbled something about him being my hero in between hyperventilating. In any case, I’m glad David did the interview because if I had to interview Erik Vendt it would probably play out like a six year old boy interviewing Spider Man.

Anyway, without further ado lets get cracking on the more mature women who have a chance at Olympic glory in 2008. All ages as of December 31st 2008:

50: Just look at the world rankings from 2007: #1. Therese Alshammar, 31 #2. Marleen Veldhuis, 30 and tied for #4. Dara Torres, 41. Of all the events contested in 2008 at Beijing, this one has the best chance for a gold medalist being 30 or older.

100: World #2 Natalie Coughlin will be, that’s right, 26 in 2008. Marleen Veldhuis, SCM world record holder in the event, is also ranked in the top 10 LCM. And seriously, at this point, is anyone counting out Dara?

200: World #2 Annika Liebs, 29. Natalie was #3. Josefin Lillhage, 28, and Alena Popchanka, 29, were also in the top 10.

400: Probably the youngest event internationally. Ai Shibata is the only swimmer over 25 ranked in the top ten for 2007.

800: Again, the only two legitimate contenders over 25 are Shibata and Flavia Rigamonti, 27.

100 Fly: Coughlin was #3. Rachel Komisarz, 32, was #4. Popchanka was also in the top ten.

200 Fly: Another very young event. Only Yuko Nakanishi, who recently set a world record over this distance SCM, was in the top ten.

100 Back: Natalie Coughlin is the prohibitive favorite. Reiko Nakamura, also 26, was #4.

200 Back: Nakamura has positioned herself as a contender with her recent SCM world record.

100 Breast: World #2 Tara Kirk will be 26.

200 Breast: No women over 25 ranked in the top ten, or even top fifteen. I’ll get back to whats going on in the breaststroke later.

200 IM: Sydney and Athens Olympic Champion Yana Klochkova will finally be 26 by Beijing. She faces an onslaught of young contenders including favorites Katie Hoff and Kirsty Coventry.

400 IM: Same story as the 200.


Looking over this list, two things really struck me. One, there are some women that I thought for sure were older based on how long they’ve been internationally competitive. For instance, Megan Jendrick (formerly Quann), is turning 24 this year. Polish great Otylia Jedrzejczak will only be 25. If it feels like the two of them have been around forever, along with Klochkova, it’s because they have. All of them have been ranked internationally in the top ten since 1999.

The other thing that struck me was the lack of older breaststrokers. Breaststroke, for one reason or another, has always been an incredibly young event. In 2004 Luo Xuejan was just 20 when she won the gold medal. Megan Quann was 16 when she won in 2000. Penny Heyns was 22 in 1996, and so on. Over that same time period Amanda Beard and Leisel Jones also reached international prominence by age 15

Lastly, I hope you will grant me a little personal paragraph in this post. This weekend, there will be two championships near and dear to my own heart. The first will be the Women’s Ivy Championship in Princeton, NJ. It’s been my pleasure to coach at Penn this year, and look forward to watching them tear it up. GO QUAKERS! The second will be the NESCAC Men’s Championship in Middlebury, VT. It’s a great meet and a great league for a lot of reasons that I don’t have room for in this post. I’m a proud Colby College Mule. Lets go blue!