Aug. 15, 2008
BEIJING, China - Former Auburn swimmers made a clean sweep Friday night at the 2008 Olympics, winning three medals in two different events, including two gold medals.
Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry was first to pick up a gold medal as she took first in the 200-meter backstroke with a world record time of 2:05.24, becoming the first swimmer ever to break 2:06 in the event. Her former teammate, Margaret Hoelzer (United States), followed right behind her in second place, earning the silver medal with a time of 2:06.23.
Thirty minutes later, Brazilian native Cesar Cielo earned Auburn's second gold medal as he posted an Olympic record time of 21.30 in the 50m freestyle.
For Coventry, the win was her first gold medal of the 2008 Beijing Games as she won by nearly a full second with her world record time of 2:05.24.
With Hoelzer finishing right behind her, it marked the first time in Olympic Games history for Auburn swimmers to go 1-2 in an event. Coventry and Hoelzer went 2-3 earlier in the week in the women's 100m backstroke.
Coventry led wire-to-wire in the race and smashed the former world record time of 2:06.09 held by Hoelzer by more than a second. It was the second time this year that the former teammates exchanged the world record as Hoelzer broke Coventry's world record at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Coventry formerly held the record with a time of 2:06.39.
The gold medal marks the first for an Auburn athlete at the 2008 Olympics and the second of Coventry's career. She also won gold in the 200m back at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. She now has seven career Olympic medals with four from the 2008 Games. She has medaled in all four of her events this year, taking silver in the 400m IM, 200m IM and 100m back.
For Hoelzer, the silver is the first of her career and the second career Olympic medal after she took bronze earlier this week in the 100m back. She will have a chance for another medal tomorrow night as the U.S. competes in the 400m medley relay.
In the men's 50m freestyle final, Cielo (Brazil) took off from the start and never looked back as he swam an Olympic record time of 21.30, just two-tenths of a second off the world record, to win his first career Olympic gold medal.
Cielo had one of the fastest reaction times, taking off from the blocks in 0.68 seconds and led throughout the race. It marks the third time this week for Cielo to break the Olympic record in the 50m free. He broke it with a 21.47 in the preliminary, with a 21.34 in the semifinal and again with a 21.30 in the final. He slowly chipped away at his personal-best time as he entered the Olympics with a top career time of 21.84 in the event.
It marks the first time ever for an Auburn swimmer to medal in the 50m freestyle and is the second career Olympic medal for Cielo. He took bronze earlier this week in the 100m freestyle.
Cielo won the event by 0.15 seconds, out-touching France's Amaury Leveaux and his time of 21.45. France swept the silver and bronze medals as Alain Bernard took third in a time of 21.49.
The medal is the 10th for Auburn in the 2008 Olympics and the second gold medal of the Games. Auburn now holds the lead among American colleges and universities for medals won in Beijing. Second on the list is California-Berkeley with nine medals and Florida with six medals.
If Auburn were its own country, it would currently rank 10th in the medal count with 10 medals so far. The United States leads with 48, followed by China (41), Australia (21), France (20), Russia (19), Korea (18), Italy (15), Japan (14) and Germany (14).
Auburn has a chance for three more medals Saturday night as the 400m medley relays are contested.
Hoelzer swam the leadoff backstroke leg on the United States relay team, clocking a time of 59.29 - the fastest backstroke split in the preliminary. The U.S. will be the third seed in Saturday's final, after posting a time of 3:59.15.
In the men's 400m medley relay, Mark Gangloff swam the breaststroke leg for the United States, helping the Americans to the top overall seed heading into Saturday's final. He swam a 1:00.35 breaststroke split to help the United States to a time of 3:32.75.
Right behind the United States was the Australian relay team, led by Matt Targett, who will be a senior at Auburn in the fall. Targett swam the freestyle for the Aussies, clocking a 47.41 split to give Australia the win in its heat and the second overall seed - just one-hundredth of a second behind the U.S.
Hoelzer, Gangloff and Targett will likely not compete in Saturday night's 400m medley relay final. Natalie Coughlin, gold medalist in the 100m back, will likely replace Hoelzer as the backstroke leg on the women's American relay while Brendan Hansen will replace Gangloff on the breaststroke leg on the men's relay.
World record holder Eamon Sullivan is the likely choice to replace Targett on the freestyle leg of the Australian relay.
Action in the finals is set to begin at 9:40 p.m. CT live on NBC.