Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin are expected to emerge as major swimming stars in the Athens Olympics. They're taking different approaches to getting there.
Phelps will swim six individual events at the US Olympic trials beginning Wednesday in a temporary pool built on a parking lot along the Long Beach shoreline. His goal is to break Mark Spitz's record 32-year-old record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics.
"I'm very in awe of the confidence he has in himself," Coughlin said of Phelps. "I think he's going to do very well with all this pressure."
Coughlin's approach is less hectic. She'll focus on making her first Olympic team in the 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke and, just for fun, the 50m free.
The top two finishers in each event are guaranteed trips to Athens.
Coughlin, who dominated college swimming when she starred at California, is limited by the schedule. She didn't want to be swimming a semifinal heat of one event just 12 minutes before a final in another, so she is skipping the 200m back and the 100m butterfly.
``The Olympic trials are filled with stress and anxiety,'' said Coughlin, who was coming off an injury and failed to make the team in 2000.
At the trials, Phelps will attempt to make the team in the 200m and 400m individual medley, which is comprised of all four strokes (freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke and backstroke). He's also scheduled to swim the 100m and 200m fly, the 200m free and the 200m backstroke.
In Athens, he hopes to swim two or three relays, which could add to his potential medal haul.
Phelps will be in the pool for seven of the meet's eight days, including five when he's got to take part in both the morning and evening sessions.
"He's got a difficult task ahead of him," said Ian Crocker, who upset Phelps while setting a world record in the 100m fly at last year's world championships. "There's a lot of people standing in his way."
But the 19-year-old from Baltimore isn't daunted by the pressure or the constant scrutiny.
"I'm extremely confident," Phelps said Tuesday. "The biggest thing is staying relaxed."
Spitz, who has never met Phelps, is pulling for the teenager to break the record.
"I have a feeling of empathy for him," Spitz said. "I hope he does it. It won't take away from anything I've done."
Phelps was the youngest member of the Olympic swim team in 2000. He didn't earn any medals in Sydney.
Phelps and Coughlin are swimming's newest rising stars. They'll be joined at the trials by several veterans trying to make yet another Olympic team. Among them:
-- Jenny Thompson, 31, who already owns a record 10 Olympic medals, but is still seeking her first individual gold.
-- Brooke Bennett, the two-time defending Olympic champion in the 800m freestyle, who has kept a low profile while rehabilitating from operations on both shoulders in 2001.
-- Jeff Rouse, the 1992 Olympic champion in the 100m backstroke, is making a comeback at 34 after seven years out of the pool.
-- Gary Hall Jr., the Olympic 50m free champion, will try to join his father as a three-time Olympian, which hasn't been done before.
-- Amanda Beard, the darling of the Atlanta Games as a 14-year-old who won a gold and two silver medals, will try to make her third Olympic team.
The trials are being held for the first time in a portable pool.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
Roger Federer on Wednesday said that staying involved with tennis in retirement helped him avoid feeling “like an alien” ahead of this week’s Laver Cup in Berlin. Federer, who helped create the tournament, retired at the Laver Cup in London two years ago and has since stayed involved with the competition as an ambassador. “I’m happy I went back right away to some tournaments,” the 43-year-old told reporters. “I feel I ripped the Band-Aid off quite quickly and when I walk around the tennis sites I still feel I belong there,” he said. “I don’t feel like an alien, which is a