Summer Olympics 2000 Americans fourth heading into final

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Monday, September 25
Americans fourth heading into final
Associated Press

SYDNEY, Australia -- Despite its gentle image, synchronized swimming has taken its physical toll on Tuesday Middaugh. She's come back each time, and is now in contention for a medal at the Olympics.

She and teammate Anna Kozlova, a former Russian turned American citizen, were fourth in the synchronized swimming duet competition Monday and will compete in the final Tuesday.

Monday's competition in the free routine cut the field down to 12 pairs.

Russia's duet of Maria Kissleyeva and Olga Brusnikina led. The Japanese duo of Miya Tachibana and Miko Takeda were second.

The Russians' karate routine to Japanese drums was so technically difficult the nearly-packed Aquatic Center would burst into applause in the middle of a move.

They received three perfect scores of 10.0 from the two sets of five judges. The rest were 9.9s. The free program counts for 65 percent of the total mark and is added to Sunday's technical results.

The Russians were far ahead of the field with 99.06 points. Japan had 98.26.

The United States duet was within 0.4 points of third-place France, 97.091 to 96.730.

Performing to "Carmen", they showed long lines and flexibility in getting scores of nearly all 9.7, with three 9.62s and a 9.8.

Just getting to the Olympics was hard enough for Middaugh, a 27-year old from Riverside, Calif.

She had emergency back surgery on two herniated discs in February, underwent treatment for her anterior cruciate ligament less than three years ago and had arthroscopic knee surgery three times.

"I'm not an injury-prone person," she said. She said she had a back condition that she wanted to put off as long as possible to keep preparing for the Olympics.

It got so bad that the doctors said she would risk permanent damage. She received a call from a doctor and was in his office the next day for surgery Feb. 24.

Now she is still doing rehab exercises after physiotherapy daily.

"Throughout the day it was hurting a lot. My back is really stiff because of things like the bus rides," Middaugh said. "I have to be careful of where I sit, how I walk, where I walk.

"It was aggravating today because when I'm out there I don't really think of it," she said.

Three years ago she was doing simple hurdle jumps in her training and injured her ACL.

"It was a freak accident. I happened to land on it wrong. I have done it hundreds of times. The second to last jump, it clicked really loud and popped," she said. "Seconds later I was on the ground"

She said she was operated on by the same surgeon who reconstructed football star Jerry Rice's leg and likes to compare how soon she was back in competition with his return.

She said she was back in the water three weeks after the operation and less than six months later she competed again. "It still wasn't perfect. By the end of the routine it would sort of hang. It was so hard to control it," she said.

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