The Black Vault

Australian & ex-girlfriend of Michel Phelps STEPHANIE Rice, lost it all in London - her Olympic title and her world record when she finished a brave sixth in the women's 400m individual medley final.


REIGNING Olympic champion Stephanie Rice is pinning her hopes of a successful title defence in the 200m individual medley tomorrow on her ability to put herself outside the range of Chinese world champion Ye Shiwen's killer closing leg of freestyle.

Rice was in the pool, albeit several lanes removed, when Ye closed out the 400m IM at the weekend with arguably the most astonishing 100m of freestyle ever witnessed at an Olympic Games.

With the field shot to pieces and the race at her mercy, Ye came home in 58.63sec, the final 50m taking only 28.93sec, faster than the corresponding men's swimmer Ryan Lochte had recorded for his finishing lap half an hour earlier. Never before in Olympic history had a women's champion finished faster than her male counterpart.

"Insane," said Rice, when asked for her opinion of Ye's performance. "I didn't see it because I was way over and, you know, behind. I didn't see her coming home. 58, I heard she split which is out of control, faster than everyone but (Michael) Phelps, I think. I mean ... (here Rice guffawed) ... if I was up with her I wouldn't have had any chance anyway."

Olympic swimming: China's Sun Yang beats rival Park to gold

Sun Yang became the first Chinese male swimmer to earn gold as he won the 400m freestyle with an Olympic record.

Sun overhauled South Korean rival Park Tae-hwan, who had been reinstated into the final after being disqualified for a false start in his morning heat.
Analysis

Ian Thorpe - BBC Sport
"It's one of those things [that my Olympic record has been broken]. When you break a record it is there for a period of time. It's fantastic that Park was included in the final. Without Park in this race I don't think Sun would have had as much satisfaction in winning."

Defending champion Park had led for most of the race before Sun overtook him just after the final turn and went on to win.

Peter Vanderkaay was third, with Great Britain's David Carry, 30, in seventh.

Carry is the oldest member of Team GB's swimming squad and said: "What a feeling. I can't believe it.
"A year ago I set myself the target of reaching the Olympic final. There have been some rocky patches. To have this awesome support behind me was fantastic."

Sun was on world record pace in the final 50 metres and, although he narrowly missed out on that mark, he did break Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe's Olympic record.

Final Results

Rank Athlete Country Result
1 Sun CHN 3:40.14 OR
2 Park KOR 3:42.06
3 Vanderkaay USA 3:44.69

The French women's basketball team produced a stunning overtime upset of three-times silver medallists Australia on Monday in a wildly entertaining game in the Olympic tournament.
LONDON (Reuters) - The French women's basketball team produced a stunning overtime upset of three-times silver medallists Australia on Monday in a wildly entertaining game in the Olympic tournament.

The 74-70 victory for France marked the first Olympic defeat for Australia against a team other the United States since 1996 and gave the winners a 2-0 record in preliminary play while dropping the losers to 1-1.

The Australian women's water polo team have hung on to beat world champions Italy 10-8 and kick-start their Olympic campaign at the Water Polo Arena.

The Aussies led for almost all the Group A match, but the Italians kept bouncing back in a thrilling cat-and-mouse encounter.

Cadel Evans continues to pay for a disappointing Tour de France, with the top Australian cyclist now forced to end his Olympics campaign.

"Cadel spoke to the two Olympic doctors and they went through the medical reasons, for sending him packing" White said.

"Then I spoke to Cadel and we came to a mutual decision that the best thing for (him) would be to go home and get some recovery.

LEISEL Jones finished fifth in the 100m breaststroke final this morning behind Lithuanian teenage sensation Ruta Meilutyte.

Jones, who clocked 1:06.95 in her fourth consecutive 100m breaststroke final, all but confirmed her career would end after these Olympics.

“I’m pretty happy with fifth," she said.

“My focus has totally changed at these Games. For me it was all about the changing of the guard and handing over to the younger swimmers."

"It's a pretty tough Games in terms of just learning things," Jones said.

"Smooth sailing doesn't make a skilful sailor.

"So I think I have got all the skills for life now.

"I would rather have a tough experience than an easy one because you don't learn much about yourself then."

The Australian stalwart says coming fifth surpassed her wildest expectations for the London Games.

"So stoked just to be in the final, that was better than I ever could have hoped for," she said.

"I'm so proud with fifth ... I gave it my best shot and left nothing in the pool."

Jones is an undoubted great: three gold medals, four silver and bronze from four Olympics.

And there could be more, with the 4x100m medley looming large before, at age 26, she deals with the inevitable question of retirement.

"The Games aren't over so I will decide (my future) when I get home," she said.

Meilutyte, 15, won narrowly from pre-Games favourite Rebecca Soni of the United States.

Meanwhile, Bronte Barratt is the fastest qualifier into tomorrow morning’s final of the women’s 200m freestyle, winning her semi-final this morning in 1:56.08.

Teammate Kylie Palmer also made the final in a great result for Australia qualifying seventh fastest in 1:56.67.

US teen prodigy Missy Franklin qualified in lane eight before returning to the pool 20 minutes later to defeat Australia’s Emily Seebohm in the 100m backstroke final.

Italian superstar Federica Pellegrini will be the one to catch after clocking the fastest time.

In the men’s 200m final, Yannick Agnel led from start to finish to blitz a red-hot field, beating Taehwan Park and Yang Sun, who dead-heated for second ahead of US star Ryan Lochte in third.

Australia’s Thomas Fraser-Holmes finished seventh in 1:46.93.

"I was in a field of champions tonight," Fraser-Holmes said of the quality field.

It was Agnel’s second gold medal in as many days after he swam over the top of Lochte in the final leg of the men’s 200m yesterday to win the gold medal for France in the race that Australia’s team bombed out after starting as favourites.

Australia’s Hayden Stoeckel finished seventh in the 100m backstroke final behind Matt Grevers of the United States.

London 2012 Olympics: Ye Shiwen swim described as 'disturbing' by United States coaching expert

Ye Shiwen, the 16-year-old Chinese swimmer who has been the story of the pool in London, broke another record on Monday night.

Her swim in winning the 400m medley in world record time on Saturday had been described as “disturbing” by a respected US coach earlier in the day but the scrutiny being placed on her performance clearly did not affect her.
She went quickest in the semi-final of the 200m medley in a time of 2 mins 08.39sec, breaking Stephanie Rice’s Olympic record by 0.06sec.

Ye broke the world record in winning the 400m individual medley on Saturday in a time of 4:28.43, taking more than a second off Rice’s record.

It was not even supposed to be her strongest event: it is over 200m that she is world champion. What made her swim even more remarkable is that her final split time, of 28.93, was 0.17 quicker than that of Ryan Lochte in the men’s 400m medley earlier that evening.

John Leonard, the executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association since 1989, said that the coaches he represents on the whole felt the swim was “unbelievable”. “I use that word in its precise meaning,” he said. “At this point it is not believable to many people.”

I saw some of those events, this week will tell how Father Time catches up with anyone, including Phelps. EVen though he failed to place in the 400 medly and Lochte won it, 4th place is nothing to sneeze at IMHO. There are definatly many new and upcoming names, and many of them in several sports are 15 or 16 years old. This level you are peeking at 15-20 years old, and in some cases old and washed up at 24. But sometimes an old dog, still has its day in some sports, so age is not always the only factor.

Mens Gymnastics, the USA definatly fell apart this year, and the UK made history, even if it was not Gold. China pulled it togather to take Gold, having a bad night 2 nights ago. The protest at the end by JAPAN, took the UK from Silver to Bronze, and bumped the Bronze winners to 4th, after the rescoring of Japans pummel horse was changed.

Our TV coverage only showed a short recap of the Equestrian 3 1/2 mile course, where the Queen's Grandaughter did well. I would love to see more of the equestrian coverage.

http://sports.yahoo.com/photos/olympics ... 45068.html

Why we appreciate the Olympics so much--those hand signals are quite interresting!

greeney2 wrote:Our TV coverage only showed a short recap of the Equestrian 3 1/2 mile course, where the Queen's Grandaughter did well. I would love to see more of the equestrian coverage.

Don't even get me started on the equestrian.

Australia was once again odd on favorites to win the equestrian events.

Then our horses pulled up injured & that was the end of that.

Personally i think it's a the English cheating once again.

I reckon their vets & the English officials, & or customs personal went all Tonya Harding on Australia's horses.


One of Australia’s earliest Olympic medal chances – the three-day eventing equestrian team – remains confident of a strong performance despite two rider withdrawals in less than a week.

Reserve rider Megan Jones pulled out on Thursday after her horse Allofasudden was ruled lame by vets. Jones had only just replaced Shane Rose and Taurus days earlier when Taurus was vetted out due to soft tissue injury, reducing Rose to tears.

Despite the unsettling chain of events, hopes for the four-member three-day eventing (3DE) team remain high on the eve of the first phase of the gruelling event. The dressage component kicks off at London’s Greenwich Park on Saturday and Sunday, followed by the testing 45-fence Cross Country course on Monday, and the final Showjumping event on Tuesday.


Replacement horse Allofasudden scratched.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?sec ... id=8202408

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/l ... 6436213654


The Australian equestrian team had lobbied Olympic officials for a replacement team member, but were denied.
reducing the team to four team members down from the 5 needed.