Women's 100 Meter Breaststroke

Australian Leisel Jones should not lose.  Her WR of 1:05.09 is more than second ahead of the rest of the field.  She’ll be easy to spot in the pool.  She has a distinctive "flat" breaststroke, she’ll likely be in lane 4 sporting a yellow cap, ahead of the rest of the field with a very flat stroke compared to other swimmers.  She took bronze in Athens, gold at Worlds last year and is the heavy favorite for gold in Beijing, this is her race.  Tarnee White could pull a silver out in a 1-2 sweep of this event by Australia, seeing as she is the second fastest swimmer in this event (1:06.04 in Aussie trials).


World Champion Leisel Jones seeks her first taste of individual Olympic gold

American Megan Jendrick will be there to represent the USA.  While this isn’t a name you recognize, you watched her win the gold medal in this event in Sydney (where she beat Lethal Leisel) at the young age of 16. Back then her name was Megan Quann. Back then she talked some smack. Back then she backed it up. Like most young female breaststroke stars she went through a phase where she had to adapt to the changes a woman’s body goes through that has a drastic affect on breaststroke technique, and she missed the Athens games (taking third to Tara Kirk in the ’04 trials).  Welcome back to the games Megan, Leisel is gonzo now though and you went 1:07.06 at trials.

Jessica Hardy won the final heat in Omaha but tested positive for an asthma drug a few days later and has pulled herself from the meet while dealing with the allegations (which she claims are false, to her credit she did test clean a few days before and after the failed test). 

Sucks most for you Tara Kirk. Damn. You took 2nd at Worlds in Melbourne last year, but taking 3rd you didn't make the team. Now Rebecca Soni, who won the 200 in Omaha, will take the second position for the states in this event. She actually has a faster best time than Megan Jendrick but went slower in the finals.


Rebecca Soni will compete in both Breaststrokes and could medal in both

The rest of the international field will be competing with Megan for a podium position.  German Sarah Poewe is right on her heals, just a few hundredths back at 1:07.10.  Yuliya Yefimova, the 16 year old out of Russia, could shake things up only a few tenths back from Jendrick along with Nanaka Tamura of Japan.

Medal Predictions:

Video:

Megan Quann claims Olympic Gold in Sydney

Women's 100 Final in Athens (no Tara Kirk in Beijing)

 

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