Beijing Olympic Games

Comeback queen Torres delivers in spades

By Janet Evans, Yahoo! Sports

WHAT WE SAW FRIDAY

Women’s 200-meter breaststroke: In my opinion, Rebecca Soni was a lock to win Friday’s 200m breaststroke race Friday at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials and finally claim her spot on the 2008 Olympic team. In 2006, she was ranked 31st in the world in this event, but burst onto the international scene in 2007, dropping eight seconds off her best time and posting the second-fastest time in the world. After dominating the field in Thursday’s semifinals, she came into tonight’s race leading her competitors with a 2:23.05, more than two seconds ahead of second-place qualifier Amanda Beard. However, not everything at these Olympic trials is a foregone conclusion. Soni also led the field going into the 100-meter breaststroke finals only to finish a disappointing fourth. So, prior to the finals, there were some who weren’t sure that Soni had the confidence and/or experience to win the event on this very large stage. But Soni came through and didn’t disappoint. She dominated the field and was under world-record pace at the 100-meter mark. Her final time: a blazing 2:22.60, only .14 seconds off Beard’s American record. Beard finished second with 2:25.13 – far off her record, but good enough to make the team.

Women’s 100-meter freestyle: Although Natalie Coughlin was ranked first going into the finals, the story was still 41-year-old comeback-queen Dara Torres. The big question was not whether Torres would make the team – with six swimmers qualifying for the 4×100 relay, there was ample opportunity – but whether she would be able to beat a field of experienced sprinters to qualify for one of the two individual spots in this race. Torres, using her incredible competitive drive, not only made the team in the individual race, but also bested Coughlin by .05 seconds to qualify in first place! She now has officially qualified for an incredible five Olympic teams. Torres’ final time was a 53.78, followed by Couglin’s 53.83. Rounding out the relay team in Beijing will be Lacey Nymeyer, Jessica Hardy, Emily Silver and Julia Smit.

WHAT WE LEARNED FRIDAY

200m breaststroke: Despite the now-confirmed presence of 2004 Olympic champion Beard in Beijing, this race belongs to Australian superstar Leisel Jones. With eight of the 10 fastest times ever in this event, Jones’ world record is still more than two-and-a-half seconds faster than Soni’s winning performance Friday. When you couple that with the fact she is hungry for an individual Olympic gold after her disappointing performances in Athens, she is a virtual lock to win the gold in Beijing. But the race for the silver could be interesting. If Soni can remain confident and calm, she is certainly a good bet. However, no one can count out Beard, the experienced veteran who just qualified for her fourth Olympic team. If anyone can pull off an upset for the silver – or even for the gold – it would be her.

100m freestyle: As sprint races go, they are pretty much anyone’s race until the swimmers touch the wall. This is how I feel the 100m freestyle will be in Beijing. Despite the recent dominance of world-record holder Libby Trickett (formerly Lenton) of Australia and Britta Steffen of Germany (also a former world-record holder), Torres’ winning time from Friday was only .90 seconds behind Trickett’s record, which she set this past March. In a race that is won or lost by hundredths of a second, the American women could certainly win the gold and the silver. With the experienced duo of Torres and Coughlin, this is a strong possibility in Beijing.

WHAT WE CAN EXPECT SATURDAY

Women’s 800-meter freestyle: Well, we want to see a world record of course! Now this could be a touchy subject for me, seeing that the current world record is owned by yours truly, but I fully expect my 8:16.22 from the 1989 Pan Pacific Games to fall Saturday evening. The only question is: Which Kate will do it – Hoff or Ziegler? In Friday’s heats, Ziegler swam an 8:29.29 to Hoff’s 8:29.91. However, the preliminaries of a distance race usually are not indicative of what the final will ultimately bring. Hoff has shown great speed, but I certainly won’t count Ziegler out, as she only gets better as the races get longer.

Women’s 200-meter backstroke: Surprisingly, I expect Saturday’s 200 backstroke to be a three-way race between Elizabeth Beisel, Hayley McGregory and Margaret Hoelzer. Hoelzer, a 2004 Olympian who placed fifth in this event in Athens, is the current American record holder and the third-fastest swimmer ever in the history of this event. She has already qualified for Beijing in the 100 backstroke and is considered by many to be a lock to win this race. But she now faces some stiff competition from Beisel and McGregory in the final. In the semis, she could only manage a third-place qualifying time of 2:09.04. Having already qualified for the Olympic team in the 400 IM, Beisel is having quite a meet. Her first-place semifinal time of 2:07.78 is more than three seconds faster than her best time prior to this competition. As for McGregory, she qualified second for the finals with a 2:08.28 effort. After finishing third in the 100 and 200 backstrokes at the 2004 Olympic trials and third in the 100 backstroke at this year’s trials, this could be McGregory’s last chance to qualify for an Olympic team. As such, we can expect her to swim quite a race.