Stephanie Rice

Infobox Swimmer
swimmername= Stephanie Rice


imagesize= 250px
fullname = Stephanie Rice
nicknames = Ricey, [cite news | title=In the water with Stephanie Rice | publisher="The Sunday Territorian" | date=23 March 2008 | accessdate=2008-08-14] Steph
nationality = Australia
strokes = Medley, freestyle, butterfly
club = St Peters Western Swimming Club
collegeteam =
birthdate = birth date and age|df=yes|1988|6|17
birthplace =Brisbane, Queensland
deathdate =
deathplace =
height = 176cm
weight = 67kg
medaltemplates=

Stephanie Rice (born 17 June 1988 in Brisbane, Queensland) is an Australian swimmer. She currently holds the world record in the 200 m and 400 m individual medley, and won three gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Rice is trained by Michael Bohl from the St Peters Western Swimming Club in Brisbane.

Career

Rice was the gold medalist in the 200 metres individual medley at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia where she defeated Olympians Brooke Hanson and Lara Carroll to claim the gold medal in the event in a time of 2:12.90, a personal best by 1.19 sec. She also won the 400 m individual medley.

At the 2007 Melbourne World Championships she won a bronze medal in the 200 m individual medley in a time of 2 minutes 11.42 seconds, breaking the previous Australian record by a second. American Katie Hoff won the gold in 2:10.13, with Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe in second place. Rice once again placed third, earning her second bronze medal in the 400 m individual medley final. In a new personal best time Rice finished in 4:41.19, taking .54 sec off her previous best.

Rice continued her strong performance, setting a new personal best time in the 400 m individual medley at an Italian meet in June 2007. Rice went a 4:40.79, edging closer to the elusive 4:40 barrier in the event. At the 2007 Japanese Open Championships, Rice smashed her personal best time in the 400 m individual medley and finally cracked the 4:40 barrier. In placing second to Zimbabwean champion Kirsty Coventry, Rice set a new Australian and Commonwealth record of 4:37.18—a personal best by 3.61 sec. Fact|date=August 2008

2008

At the 2008 Australian Olympic trials, Rice broke the world record in the 400 m individual medley. Rice stopped the clock at 4 minutes 31.46 seconds, 1.43 seconds off American Katie Hoff's mark of 4:32.89. [cite news|title=Rice, Seebohm break world records|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/swimming/rice-seebohm-break-world-records/2008/03/22/1205602729464.html|publisher="The Age"|date=2008-03-22|accessdate=2008-03-22] On 29 June 2008, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Hoff retook the world record from Rice with a time of 4:31.12. Rice claimed her second world record of the meet, when she broke the 200 m individual medley world record, clocking 2 minutes 8.92 seconds, taking almost a full second off the previous record held by China's Wu Yanyan. [cite news|title=Rice claims 200m world record in Sydney|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/beijing2008/rice-claims-200m-world-record-in-sydney/2008/03/25/1206207102100.html"|publisher"The Sydney Morning Herald"|date=2008-03-25|accessdate=2008-03-25]

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Rice won her first-ever Olympic medal, Australia's first gold medal of the games and its 400th summer Olympic medal [cite web | date = 10 August 2008 | title = Rice steams to gold and world record | work = Fairfax Digital - smh.com.au - Sydney Morning Herald | url = http://www.smh.com.au/news/swimming/rice-steams-her-way-to-gold/2008/08/10/1218306633025.html | accessdate = 2008-08-14 ] , winning the 400m individual medley in a time of 4 minutes 29.45 seconds. In the process she reclaimed the world record from Hoff bettering the mark by 1.67 seconds, thus becoming the first woman to break the 4:30 mark in the event, (Kirsty Coventry also went under 4:30 in taking the silver). Her second gold medal of the games came on 13 August in the 200 m individual medley with a new world record time of 2 minutes 8.34 seconds. Rice prevailed after being neck and neck with Coventry, who also went under the old world record [cite news|title=Rice edges thrilling medley final|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/swimming/7557694.stm"|publisher"BBC Sport"|date=2008-08-13|accessdate=2008-08-13] . On 14 August she won her third gold medal as part of the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay team.

Personal life

Rice attended Clayfield College in her high school years in Brisbane, Queensland. [cite news | title= Rice returns with gold swag | publisher="Northern News (Brisbane)" | date=29 April 2004 | accessdate=2008-08-16] [cite news | title= Golden girl is hunting bigger fish | publisher="Weekend Australian" | date=29 April 2006 | accessdate=2008-08-16] The athlete was romantically linked with fellow Australian swimmer and 50m freestyle world record holder Eamon Sullivan; they ended their 2 year relationship in July 2008, just prior to the Beijing Olympics.cite web|author=Ben English| date = 30 July 2008 | title = Stephanie Rice, Eamon Sullivan still 'good friends' after breaking up ahead of Olympics | publisher= Herald Sun|url=http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/beijing_olympics/story/0,27313,24101163-5014104,00.html|accessdate=2008-08-19] The couple lived in separate states of Australia (Sullivan in WA and Rice in Queensland) and said the stress of living so far apart and of course the impending Olympics caused the split.

References

External links

*
* Videos & Results on [http://www.swimpassion.net/Athletes/stephanierice.html SwimPassion.net]
* [http://www.hansonsportsmedia.com/mediaDocs/Telstra%20Australian%20Short%20Course%20Media%20guide.pdf 2005 media guide to swimming event] (page 39)