Summer Olympics 2000 American Torres wins bronze

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Saturday, September 23
American Torres wins bronze
Associated Press

SYDNEY, Australia -- Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands, already the world's fastest woman sprinter, won the 50-meter freestyle Saturday for her third individual Olympic gold.

De Bruijn swam 24.32 seconds -- .19 seconds over the world record she set in Friday's semifinals.

"I'm floating on a big cloud," De Bruijn said. "I hope I don't land for a long time."

A raucous Aussie crowd had something to cheer about, too.

Grant Hackett and Kieren Perkins went 1-2 in the grueling 1,500 freestyle, continuing their country's dominance in the mile.

Hackett continued the Australian distance swimming legacy established by Perkins, winning the grueling mile in 14:48.33.

Perkins, trying to become the first male swimmer to win the same individual Olympic event three times, took silver. The Aussies went 1-2 in the event for an unprecedented third straight Olympics.

Chris Thompson of Roseburg, Ore., finished third, earning the first medal in the event since the United States went 1-2 in 1984.

All three medalists went under 15 minutes for the first time in Olympic history.

In the women's 50 freestyle, Therese Alshammar of Sweden took silver in 24.51 seconds, finishing behind De Bruijn for the second time in two days. The Swede was runner-up in the 100 freestyle.

Torres won bronze in 24.63. American Amy Van Dyken, the defending Olympic champion, was fourth in 25.04. Later, Van Dyken and Ashley Tappin earned gold medals for swimming in preliminaries of the 400 medley relay.

De Bruijn set world records in winning the 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly at these games. She also anchored the Dutch 400 freestyle relay team to silver.

"I knew I could do great, but I didn't know if I would do three gold medals," she said. "It's easy for the outsiders to predict three gold medals, but you still have to do it. You're all alone up there. You've got to do it yourself."

Torres, who made a comeback after taking a seven-year break from the pool, earned her third individual bronze. She was third in the 100 butterfly and tied Thompson in the 100 freestyle. She also was part of the world record-setting 400 freestyle relay.

Van Dyken, who won her sixth career gold for swimming preliminaries of the 400 medley relay, was coming off two shoulder surgeries since her upset of China's Jingyi Li four years ago.

The race was the last of Van Dyken's career.

"A couple of months ago, I didn't know if I'd be able to swim and I got fourth. That's pretty good," she said.

Van Dyken, a 27-year-old from Englewood, Colo., lingered in the water, taking in the sellout crowd of 17,500 and the Olympic rings.

"It's the last time I'll see the pool as a competitor. It's hard, you know," she said. "I was a lot more emotional than I thought I would be."

Hackett and Perkins were spurred by chants of "Aussie! Aussie!" during the mile. Perkins never got in front of Hackett, finishing in 14:53.59. He surrendered the title he won in 1992 and again in '96, when he was the underdog who qualified slowest in Lane 8.

American Erik Vendt of North Easton, Mass., who became the first American to break 15 minutes at the U.S. trials in August, faded to sixth in 15:08.61.

Thompson won the bronze by seven hundreths of a second over Russian Alexei Filipets, who also went under 15 minutes. Thompson's time of 14:56.81 snapped Vendt's American record.

"Wow, that's so close," Thompson said. "I'm totally thrilled. I was really nervous before the race and I didn't even feel that great in warmups. I didn't think it would be a good one for me."

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