Aug. 14, 2008
BEIJING, China - Three former Tigers will get the chance to compete for a medal Friday night as Cesar Cielo, Kirsty Coventry and Margaret Hoelzer advanced out of Thursday's semifinals at the 2008 Olympics.
Cielo (Brazil) won the 50-meter freestyle semifinal while Coventry (Zimbabwe) took top honors in the 200m backstroke. Hoelzer finished fifth in the 200m back to earn one of the eight finals spots.
Action in Friday's finals session is set to begin at 9:03 a.m. CT with the women's 200m backstroke. The men's 50m freestyle follows at 10:39 p.m. CT. NBC Sports will carry all the action live from the Water Cube in Beijing, China.
Considered the fastest man in the world in short course yards, Auburn's Cielo will attempt to take that title to the Olympic level Friday in the 50m free final after posting an Olympic-record time of 21.34 in Thursday's semifinal.
Cielo finished a whole two-tenths of a second ahead of the rest of the pack, breaking the old Olympic record time of 21.46, set in the preliminary session by France's Amaury Leveaux. Cielo also set the Olympic record in the preliminary, clocking a 21.47 just minutes before Leveaux posted his time. He also finished just six-hundredths of a second off Eamon Sullivan's world record time of 21.28.
The former Auburn swimmer is coming fresh off his bronze-medal performance Wednesday in the 100m freestyle and is looking for his second career Olympic medal.
The time also sets new South American and Americas records as it is a personal-best time for Cielo and ranks second all-time in the world.
Two other Auburn swimmers, George Bovell (Trinidad & Tobago) and Gideon Louw (South Africa), were also competing in the semifinal.
Bovell, who finished his time at Auburn in 2006, finished sixth in his heat, 11th overall in the semifinal, with a time of 21.86. Louw, a transfer from Indian River Community College that will start at Auburn in the fall, finished right behind Bovell in 12th with a time of 21.97.
For the fourth time this week, two Auburn swimmers will square off in an Olympic final as Coventry and Hoelzer qualified for the final in the 200m backstroke.
Coventry clocked a time of 2:07.76 in Thursday night's semifinal to earn the top overall seed heading into the Friday night final. Hoelzer, who swam two lanes over from Coventry in their heat, finished fifth overall (third in the heat) with a time of 2:08.24.
Hoelzer is the current world record holder in the event with her time of 2:06.09 from the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials. Her time broke the previous world record time of 2:06.39 held by Coventry. Coventry is also the Olympic record holder with her preliminary time of 2:06.76 and the defending champion after she took gold in the event at the 2004 Olympics.
Coventry led wire-to-wire in the semifinal heat, opening with a 30.01 in the first 50 meters and a 31.96 in the second 50 meters. Both times were the fastest in the heat. Hoelzer posted the fastest split in the third 50 meters with a 32.53 as she made her move up.
Coventry finished a comfortable 0.33 seconds ahead of second-place Meagan Nay (Australia) and 0.49 seconds ahead of Hoelzer. The trio separates themselves from the rest of the pack as fourth-place Belinda Hocking finished more than a half second behind Hoelzer.
Also swimming in Thursday's semifinals was former Auburn swimmer Fred Bousquet. He failed to advance to the 100m butterfly final at the 2008 Olympics after finishing 16th in the semifinal with a time of 52.94.
Bousquet, a native of France, swam the fastest 50 butterfly of any of the 16 competitors in the semifinal, touching in with a 23.57 at the turn. But, Bousquet quickly faded in the second 50 meters, clocking a 29.37 split for his 52.94 total.
The semifinal appearance was the first of Bousquet's Olympic career as he did not make it out of the preliminary at the 2004 Athens Games.
Bousquet, Cielo and Hoelzer, along with Mark Gangloff (USA) and Alexei Puninski (Croatia), are expected to return to action Friday morning in the 400m medley relay preliminaries.
Action is set to begin at 7:32 a.m. CT with the first heat of the women's preliminary. By qualifying for the 100m backstroke, Hoelzer is part of the pool of available swimmers for the relay and is expected to swim the preliminary backstroke leg. The United States will occupy lane four in the relay.
Cielo follows at 7:44 a.m. CT as Brazil is slated for the first preliminary of the men's relay. Cielo should swim the freestyle leg of the relay, swimming in lane three.
Bousquet, Gangloff and Puninski will wrap up the preliminary session in the second relay heat. Bousquet and Puninski will swim side-by-side against each other as France will be in lane one with Croatia in lane two. Both are expected to swim the butterfly leg of the relay. Gangloff, who is expected to swim the breaststroke leg, and the United States will be over in lane four.
For more information on the 2008 Olympics, check out the official Olympics Web site at http://en.beijing2008.cn/ or go to Auburn Olympics Central at http://auburntigers.cstv.com/ot/olympians.html.