Stephanie Rice

Stephanie Rice

Personal information
Full name	Stephanie Louise Rice
Nickname(s)	Ricey,[1] Steph
Country	Australia
Stroke(s)	Medley, Freestyle, Butterfly
Club	St Peters Western Swimming Club
Date of birth	17 June 1988 (1988-06-17) (age 22)
Place of birth	Gold Coast, Queensland
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Weight	67 kg (150 lb; 10.6 st)
Medal record Women's swimming Competitor for  Australia Olympic Games Gold 2008 Beijing 200 m medley Gold 2008 Beijing 400 m medley Gold 2008 Beijing 4×200 m freestyle World Championships (LC) Silver 2009 Rome 200 m medley Silver 2009 Rome 4x100 m medley Bronze 2007 Melbourne[2] 200 m medley Bronze 2007 Melbourne 400 m medley Bronze 2009 Rome 400 m medley Commonwealth Games Gold 2006 Melbourne[3] 200 m medley Gold 2006 Melbourne 400 m medley Pan Pacific Championships Bronze 2006 Victoria 200 m medley Bronze 2006 Victoria 400 m medley

Stephanie Louise Rice OAM (born 17 June 1988 in Brisbane, Queensland) is an Australian swimmer. She currently holds the world record in the 400 m women's individual medley, and won three gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Rice is trained by Michael Bohl from the St Peters Western Swimming Club in Brisbane. She was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2009.^[4][5]

Career

Rice was the gold medallist in the 200 metres individual medley at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia where she defeated Olympians Brooke Hanson and Lara Carroll to claim the gold medal in the event in a time of 2:12.90, a personal best by 1.19 sec. She also won the 400m individual medley.

At the 2007 Melbourne World Championships she won a bronze medal in the 200m individual medley in a time of 2 minutes 11.42 seconds, breaking the previous Australian record by a second. American Katie Hoff won the gold in 2:10.13, with Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe in second place. Rice once again placed third, earning her second bronze medal in the 400m individual medley final. In a new personal best time Rice finished in 4:41.19, taking 0.54 sec off her previous best.

Rice continued her strong performance, setting a new personal best time in the 400m individual medley at an Italian meet in June 2007. Rice went a 4:40.79, edging closer to the elusive 4:40 barrier in the event. At the 2007 Japanese Open Championships, Rice smashed her personal best time in the 400m individual medley and finally cracked the 4:40 barrier. In placing second to Zimbabwean champion Kirsty Coventry, Rice set a new Australian and Commonwealth record of 4:37.18, a personal best by 3.61 sec.

At the 2008 Australian Olympic trials, Rice broke the world record in the 400 m individual medley. Rice stopped the clock at 4 minutes 31.46 seconds, 1.43 seconds off American Katie Hoff's mark of 4:32.89. On 29 June 2008, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Hoff regained the world record from Rice with a time of 4:31.12. Rice claimed her second world record of the meet, when she broke the 200 m individual medley world record, clocking 2 minutes 8.92 seconds to slash almost a full second off the previous record held by China's Wu Yanyan.

At the Beijing Olympic Games, Rice received her first-ever Olympic medal, Australia's first gold medal of the games and its 400th summer Olympic medal, winning the 400m individual medley in a time of 4 minutes 29.45 seconds. In the process she reclaimed the world record from Hoff bettering the mark by 1.67 seconds, thus becoming the first woman to break the 4:30 in the event, (Kirsty Coventry also went under 4:30 in taking the silver).

2007 World Championships

Rice won bronze in the 200 m and 400 m individual medleys. In the 200 m final, she recorded a time of 2:11.42, a second below the previous Australian record, behind American Katie Hoff in 2:10.13, and Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, who claimed second place. In the 400 m final, Rice recorded a new personal best time of 4:41.19, shaving 0.54 sec off her previous best.

2007 Other events

Rice set a new personal best time of 4:40.79 in the 400 m individual medley at an Italian meet in June 2007, edging closer to the 4:40 barrier in the event.

At the 2007 Japanese Open Championships, Rice won silver behind Zimbabwean champion Kirsty Coventry in the 400 m individual medley. In doing so, she smashed her personal best time by 3.61 seconds, cracking the 4:40 barrier and setting a new Australian and Commonwealth record of 4:37.18.

2008 Australian Olympic Trials

At the 2008 Australian Olympic trials, Rice broke the world record in both the 400 m and 200 m individual medleys. In the 400 m, she clocked 4:31.46, 1.43 seconds below American Katie Hoff's mark of 4:32.89.^[6] (Hoff retook the world record at the U.S. Olympic Trials, on 29 June 2008, with a time of 4:31.12.) In the 200 m, she clocked 2:08.92 seconds, taking almost a second off the previous record held by China's Wu Yanyan.^[7]

2008 Summer Olympics

In Beijing, Rice won three gold medals (each in world record time) in the 200 m and 400 m individual medleys and in the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay. In winning the 400m individual medley, Rice won her first Olympic medal, Australia's first gold medal of the games and their 400th Summer Olympic medal.^[8] Recording a time of 4:29.45, she reclaimed the world record from Hoff, bettering the mark by 1.67 seconds, and became the first woman to break the 4:30 mark in the event. (Kirsty Coventry also went under 4:30 in taking the silver) Her second gold medal of the games came on 13 August in the 200 m individual medley with a new world record time of 2:08.34. Rice prevailed after being neck and neck with Coventry throughout the last 50 m, who once again followed Rice to beat the old world record.^[9] On 14 August she won her third gold medal as part of the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay team. She led off the team and Australia were in second place at the end of her leg.

2009 World Championships

Rice began the meet with a solid performance int the 200m IM, despite losing her world record, she sliced 1.42s off her personal best time capturing a silver medal. Experimenting with the 200 freestyle didn't end well as she failed to make the final. With the absence of Linda Mackenzie, Kylie Palmer and Meagan Nay, the team was never in medal contention, finishing 5th. Rice retained her 400 IM record however finished with a bronze in the final. She was awarded a silver medal for her contributions in the medley relay heats.

Awards

• 2008 Telstra Australian Swimmer of the Year.
• Swimming World Magazine named Rice as (female) 2008 World Swimmer of the Year as well as Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year

Personal life

Rice attended Clayfield College in her high school years in Brisbane, Queensland.^[10][11] She was romantically linked with fellow Australian swimmer and 50m freestyle world-record-holder Eamon Sullivan. They ended their 2 year relationship in July 2008, just prior to the Beijing Olympics.^[12] The couple lived in separate states of Australia (Sullivan in WA and Rice in Queensland) and said the stress of living so far apart and the impending Olympics caused the split, but have conceded that the two are still good friends.^[12]

In September 2010, Rice came under fire for tweeting a homophobic slur in response to the Wallabies defeat of the Springboks. Consequently one of her sponsors, Jaguar has ceased all association with the athlete. Rice has apologized for the remark.^[13]

References

External links

• Media related to Stephanie Rice at Wikimedia Commons
• 2005 media guide to swimming event (page 39) Hanson Sport

Records
Preceded by Wu Yanyan	Women's 200 metre individual medley world record holder (long course) 25 March 2008 – 26 July 2009	Succeeded by Ariana Kukors
Preceded by Katie Hoff	Women's 400 metre individual medley world record holder (long course) 22 March 2008 – 29 June 2008	Succeeded by Katie Hoff
Preceded by Katie Hoff	Women's 400 metre individual medley world record holder (long course) 10 August 2008 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Awards
Preceded by Laure Manaudou	World Swimmer of the Year 2008	Succeeded by Federica Pellegrini
Preceded by Libby Trickett	Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year 2008	Succeeded by Jessicah Schipper
Preceded by Libby Trickett	Australian Swimmer of the Year 2008	Succeeded by Jessicah Schipper