Katie Hoff, who failed to live up to the hype surrounding her at the Beijing Olympic Games, has announced that she will be training under Michael Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman in the future. The 19-year-old fellow Baltimore native earned two Bronze Medals and one Silver Medal in Beijing–no small achievment, but was overshadowed by her teammates, especially Phelps.

Hoff holds the American record in the 200m freestyle and is the world champion in the 400m and 4×200m events. It’s clear that she has a lot of swimming (and winning) ahead of her.

^{(photo © Newscom)}

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Hoff Switches to Phelps Coach

China’s Liu Zige won the women’s 200m butterfly event with a world record time of 2:04.18. She was followed by her teammate, Jiao Liuyang for the Silver Medal and Australia’s Jessicah Schipper for the Bronze.

Stephanie Rice and the Australian team prevailed in the women’s 4×200m freestyle relay, with a world record time of 7:44.31. The Chinese women (Yang Yu, Zhu Qianwel, Tan Miao, Pang Jiaying) earned the Silver Medal and the United States (Allison Schmitt, Natalie Coughlin, Caroline Burckle, and Katie Hoff) place third for the Bronze Medal.

In addition to Rice, the Australian team included Bronte Barratt, Kylie Palmer, and Linda MacKenzie.

Persistance paid off for Alain Bernard of France as he took the Gold Medal in the men’s 100m freestyle event. Bernard was bested by the Americans in the 4×100m freestyle relay for the Gold earlier in the meet.

Eamon Sullivan of Australia took the Silver Medal and Jason Lezak of the United States and Cesar Cielo Filho of Brazil tied for the Bronze.

Defending Olympic champion, Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands finished fourth. Hoogenband announced his retirement from competitive swimming after the race.

As Jeanne reported earlier, Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima won the Gold Medal in the men’s 200m breast stroke event, setting a new world record of 2:07.64. He was followed by Brenton Rickard of Australia and Hugues Duboscq of France for the Silver and Bronze Medals.

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Scenes from the Water Cube – August 14

It seems that with all of the publicity being heaped on the stars of the Olympics, like Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff, that there are dozens of noteworthy athletes from another the world that are not being talked about. One such swimmer is Kirsty Coventry from the south African nation of Zimbabwe. Few outside the swimming world have heard of this 24-year-old Auburn University alum, although she won three medals at the Athens Games: a Gold, a Silver, and a Bronze.

Coventry’s performance in Beijing has been impressive so far. She earned the Silver Medal in the 400 IM just behind Stephanie Rice of Australia. Both women were under the world record time set by Katie Hoff (the Bronze medalist) in the American Olympic swimming trials. Coventry also set a new world record during the semi-finals of the 100m backstroke event. In addition to those two events, she is entered in the 200 IM and the 200m backstroke events.

Coventry is something of a national hero in Zimbabwe and sees herself as a unifying influence in her racially-divided country. She is a past Zimbabwe’s Sports Woman of the Year and the 2004/2005 SEC Conference Female Athlete of the Year.

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Who is Kirsty Coventry?

Australia’s Stephanie Rice proved Sunday morning (in Beijing) that’s she more than a favorite of the Australian tabloid press. She broke the world record in the women’s 400 IM by more than a second-and-a-half, leaving the previous record holder, American Katie Hoff in her wake. Rice’s Gold Medal time was 4:29.45.

Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe captured the Silver Medal and Katie Hoff earned the Bronze.

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Stephanie Rice Smashes World Record for 400 IM Gold

Image details: U.S. Swimming Olympic Trials – Day Two served by picapp.com

Katie Hoff, 19, qualified for her second Olympic swimming event in as many days last night in Omaha. She adds the Women’s 400m Freestyle to her previous qualifying, world record time in the Women’s 400m IM.

Hoff won the 400m Freestyle event with a time of 4:2.32, besting second place finisher, Kate Ziegler, who is a favorite in the 800m event.

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Hoff Qualifies for Second Olympic Event

Image details: U.S. Swimming Olympic Trials – Day One served by picapp.com

The US Swimming Olympic Trials started the week off with high drama as new world records were set in both the mens and the womens 400m individual relay events. Michael Phelps, who won seven medals in Athens, finished the men’s 400m IM just a few hundredths of a second ahead of Ryan Lochte with a time of four minutes, 5.25 seconds.

In the womens 400m IM, 19-year-old Katie Hoff, also a former Olympian, finished her event with a world record time of four minutes, 31.2 seconds.

Also heading to Beijing in the womens 400m IM is Elizabeth Beisel and Lochte in the mens 400m IM.

In the individual medley, swimmers complete two laps of the pool in each of four strokes: butterfly, backstroke, breast stroke, and freestyle.

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New World Records in Mens and Womens 400 IM