Xiaohong Wang of China - a University of Utah swimmer last fall quarter - won an Olympic silver medal here Friday evening, placing second to American Summer Sanders in the women's 200 meter butterfly final.
With a near-capacity crowd looking on in the Piscines Picornell Stadium, Wang touched the final wall barely behind Sanders, 2:08.67 to 2:09.01. Susan O'Neill of Australia was another split-second back at 2:09.03 and took the bronze medal. The three finished in a virtual dead heat and the crowd had to turn to to the electronic scoreboard opposite the finish line to determine which swimmer touched first.Wang, a 23-year-old from Jiangsu, China, and O'Neill led through most of the race. Sanders surged on the last 50-meter lap of the four-lap race, however, and her momentum carried her to the win.
It was Wang's second Olympic Games and her first medal. She finished fourth, just one out of the medals, this past Wednesday in the 100-meter butterfly competition.
The 5-foot-7, 145-pound swimmer enrolled at the University of Utah last fall and trained with the University of Utah women's swimming team. After one quarter of school she returned to China to train with the national team there for the Olympic Games. Jim Wilson, the Utes' head swim coach, expects Wang to return to school, and to his team, this fall. "She has already been readmitted," an aide in the Ute athletic department said Friday.
Wang swam a hundredth of a second better than her personal best in the 200 to win the silver medal. By taking second she inadvertantly aided Sports Illustrated's prognosticating. In its Olympic preview edition the magazine predicted that Wang would win the silver in the 200 butterfly - and also correctly predicted that Sanders would win the gold medal.
Friday's race started particularly fast and at the end of the first 100 meters both O'Neill and Wang were under world-record pace -- threatening the world record of 2:05.96 set in 1981 by Mary Meagher as well as Meagher's Olympic record of 2:06.90 set in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984.
The strong start took something of a toll in the last half of the race, however, and allowed Sanders to catch back up. The fourth place finisher, Mika Haruna of Japan, was well back, almost a second behind Sanders, O'Neil and Wang.
"I was really determined to get my hand on the wall first," said Sanders, a silver and bronze medalist in previous races here. "I was tired of getting out-touched. There was definitely a lot of weight off my shoulders when I touched that wall. It was close. The last 50 (meters) was so close. I had no idea I'd won until I turned around and looked at the scoreboard."
Wang was taken to doping control immediately after the race and was unavailable for comment at Deseret News press time.
In other Olympic news Friday night, Frank Fredericks, the former BYU sprint champion competing in Barcelona for his native Namibia, easily survived the first two heats of the men's 100 meter competition. Fredericks, the 1991 NCAA sprint champion and expected to be a strong medal contender, won his first heat in the morning and, after the field of sprinters was trimmed to 32, followed that with another win in his second race in the evening as the field was further reduced to 16.
"I feel good," Fredericks said as he waved at reporters and left the track. The semifinals and finals in the 100 meters are scheduled for Saturday afternoon and evening.