Article by John Manenti
The last decade of the 20th century sees how main protagonist of women’s swimming, as far as the Breaststroke specialty is concerned, the South African Penelope Heyns, capable of both winning the Gold Medal on both distances of 100 and 200 meters at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics that, above all, to improve the 100m world record on 5 occasions up to 1’06″52, doing the same over the double distance, up to 2’23″64 …
Things change with the entry into the new millennium, when this style becomes the land of conquest of a trio of US specialists made up of Amanda Beard, Rebecca Soni and Jessica Hardy (although the latter gives its best in the 50 meters, a non-Olympic specialty …), like by the Australian Leisel Jones and the Russian Yuliya Efimova which monopolize a large part of the podiums at the Games and at the World Championships.
In particular, in view of the appointment made up of London 2012 Olympics, there is an obligatory favorite in the figure of the 25-year-old American Rebecca Soni who, after having been Gold over the 200m and silver over the 100m at the 2008 Beijing Gamesarrives in the British capital with a strong double over both distances obtained the previous year at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai – where she precedes Jones (1’05″05 to 1’06″25) and Efimova (2’21″47 at 2’22”22) respectively – after having done the same at the Pan Pacific Championships held in the second half of August 2010 in Irvine, California, in which Jones surrendered in both trialswith the breaststroker from New Jersey setting the event record in both cases with 1’04”93 and 2’20”69 …
With the Olympic program to foresee first the 100m breaststroke race, for which the heats and semi-finals will be held on 29 July 2012 with the Final the following day in the plant of theLondon Aquatic Centre”, to position themselves on the starting blocks there are all the big favorites, namely the aforementioned Soni, Jones and Efimova, as well as 21-year-old Japanese Satomi Suzuki date in clear growth, except that …
Yes, because among the 46 registered, divided into 6 batteries, there is also the very young Lithuanian Ruta Melutyte, as she was born on 19 March 1997 in Kaunas, the second largest city in her country with almost 400,000 inhabitantswho is the only swimmer to take part in the Review, in addition to three colleagues in the men’s sector, the best of which is the other breaststroker Giedrius Titenis (world champion bronze on the 200m breaststroke in Rome in 2009 …), who he reaches the Final of the 100m breaststroke however concluding in the eighth and last place.
At this point we open a brief parenthesis on the shareholdings of Lithuania at the Games since independence from the Soviet Union at the end of December 1991, which allows its athletes to compete since the 1992 Barcelona Olympicsbut in these first 20 years the greatest satisfactions come from Athletics and, in particular, from the specialty of Men’s discus throw, with Romas Ubartas climbing the top step of the podium already in the Catalan capital, subsequently imitated by the “legendary” Virgilius AleknaGold both in the Sydney 2000 edition and in the following Athens 2004 edition …
No note regarding swimming – while at the female level it causes a sensation the statement to the “Millennium Games” of Sydney 2000 by Daina Gudzineviciute in the clay pigeon shooting competition – so that few people predict that the barely 15-year-old Lithuanian will be able to undermine the most expert breaststroke players of the moment, even if she shows up in London with a best time of 1’07”30 obtained at the beginning of March in the same facility that hosts the raceshowever far from Hardy’s world record of 1’04”45 even if made at the time of the so-called “rubberized costumes” then banned.
But for adolescents it is known that the margins for improvement are difficult to quantify, and to begin to know the “terrible girlIt’s two o’clock first Australian Jones and Leiston Pickett who come well behind her in the third heat, with Melutyte stopping the clocks on the time of 1’05″65 only approached by Soni with 1’05″75 with which he concludes the sixth and final series, in front of Efimova …
It’s hard to think what went through the minds of the best specialists in the period of time between the heats at the end of the morning and the semifinals scheduled for 7.50 pm, they will probably have questioned their technicians about where it came from “ticked” this unexpected rival, but in Sport it is known that the only way to win is to go faster, so that, after the Soni wins the first series, worsening the morning time to 1’05″98 ahead of compatriot Breeja Larson and the Suzukihere is that in the second la breaststroker from Kaunas provides another proof of her dazzling form by going down to 1’05″21, equal to the European record to precede the amazed Efimova and Jones by a good marginwhich conclude with the respective times of 1’06”57 and 1’06”81.
Definitely not spared in the two elimination rounds, the 15-year-old Melutyte now finds herself the continental record holder and with all the pressure on her of being in a flash from “illustrious unknown” a favorite for the Gold Medalwhich would be an absolute novelty for your country which in previous editions of the Games had seen only Vytautas Janusaitis reach the Olympic Final, seventh over the 200m medley in 2004 in Athens, so as to be forced to manage a state of mind for which the recklessness of the young age probably benefits in favor …
At any rate, when at 20:10 of 30 July 2012 the 8 finalists are positioned on the starting blocksit is also necessary to live a “small yellow” constituted by the anticipated departure by the American Larson, which would lead to disqualification, but which is allowed to start again due to a malfunction of the audio communication system of the starter’s orders, and then witness the same behavior of the Lithuanian who gives her strokes an impressive pace that leads her to pass the mid-race turn in 30″56 to precede Larson and Efimova with 30″85 and 30″90 respectively, who pay the effort to keep the pace of Melutyte in the return tank, finishing in sixth and seventh position …
Soni’s race conduct was wiser who, despite competing in the lane alongside the Baltic, reserves her energies for the second 50 meters that see her progressively reduce the 0″72 hundredths delay in mid-race until it seems to be able to catch up with her younger opponent who still manages in the last underwater stroke to maintain (1’05″47 to 1’05″55) those 0”08 cents that give her the “Olympic glory” and, to his own country, what is still today the only medal won in swimming.
However, the American can console herself by repeating the Gold medal in Beijing over the 200 metres, to which she also joins the success with the 4×100 medley relay, while the Melutyte confirms his very high levels the following year at the Barcelona World Championships, where in the semifinal he improves Hardy’s absolute limit with 1’04″35 and takes the world title ahead of him (1’04″42 to 1’05″02) the Efimova to then, after having had to suffer a revenge (1’05″66 to 1’06″36) of the Russian two years later in Kazan, to experience a long period of tarnish from which she seems to have only recently recovered …
But, anyway, she had already written history …
