Dana Vollmer Sets Olympic Record
Dana Vollmer isn’t screwing around. The American swimmer set a new Olympic record during the qualifying round this morning in the 100-meter butterfly.
Vollmer, who previously held the record for an American swimmer, finished her heat this morning with a 56.25 second time. Vollmer beat the Olympic record, set by Inge de Buijn in 2000, by more than 3 tenths of a second.
“I felt really good. I like to push myself in the prelims and see where I’m going in my body. I did feel like I was kind of pacing myself and building up to get faster. Walking in I just had to remind myself that I love racing and the 100m fly is my favorite event. I feel so much better. I’m a completely different person to what I was four years ago.”
The NY Times reports that Vollmer is still a little shy of the world record, however. Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden set the world record when she finished the 100 meter butterfly in 56.06. Sjostrom is competing at the 2012 London Olympics but could only muster a 57.45 time today.
Olympic swimmers tend to swim just fast enough to win their heats at major meets, so Vollmer probably left a few tenths in the pool. Her closest competitor at the moment is Lu Ying of China, who finished close to a second behind.
Ying said:
“I am doing good as normally in training I swim around 58ish, so this morning’s swim (57.17sec) was not at my standard level… I feel good about it.”
Do you think Dana Vollmer will give the United States a gold medal?
