Duel in the Pool follows up worlds
Duel in the Pool was, as always, a fun meet. Every two years we compete in the Duel against Australia, our historical rivals. It’s always fun to bring the two greatest swim teams in the world together to compete.We were all tired and run down from worlds, so coming to another swim meet was the last thing we wanted. However, when we got to Sydney, everything changed. We were not going to give into the Australians.
The meet is judged three ways — men’s team, women’s team, and combined team score. We knew that our men would win easily and that as a team we would win, but we had a lot of competition on the women’s team side.
The meet began with a mixed 400 free relay. Michael Phelps lead off for us and Libby Lenton started for the Aussies. Everything was looking great. Michael had a huge lead and Kara Lynn Joyce was ten meters down the pool before the next Aussie entered the water. But, when we saw 52.99 on the clock for Libby we knew it was going to be quite a battle. She broke the world record! The relay ended with the Aussies winning. It was clear at that point just how tough their women were.
I swam the 400 free and 200 free. In both I had a lot of competition. I was amazed by how fast their women swam. I won the 400 by a narrow margin. This surprised me because I swam faster than in finals at worlds and their women did not even make the finals heat. In the 200, I went a best time by a second. For the longest time I had been trying to get under 2:00 and finally I went 1:59.02!
We ended up barely losing the meet. It came down to the last relay — the 400 medley. Unfortunately, this is the one relay that the Aussie women dominate. They had just recently broken the world record in it. I knew it was going to be hard for us to pull out the win. Our women fought hard, but in the end we could not compete against the Aussies.
After the meet we had a barbecue with the Aussies and our parents and friends. It’s really cool to have such a rivalry against the Aussies in the pool, but then be great friends outside.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:42 am
Kate, you have been doing so much and making so much history lately. I wish you would log in here and tell us how it has been. Congratulations on the World records in Germany. That’s 4 in 4 months!