The money will come in handy for the four U.S. women swimmers who won it. The team gold was worth its weight in memories for the others Saturday night.
The American team, led by Jenny Thompson and Cristina Teuscher, won the team gold after defeating Germany 78-44, its third straight dual-meet win at the Goodwill Games."I didn't have any concrete goals, just to swim good times," Thompson said. "But I'm real happy that the team was undefeated. The dual-meet format made things more exciting."
The gold medal is worth $50,000 to the winning team, and since only four of the 18 team members are out of college, those four get to share the loot.
Thompson of Dover, N.H.; captain Lea Maurer of Crestwood, N.Y.; Richelle Fox of Scotia, N.Y.; and Ashley Tappin of New Orleans will take home $12,500 each for the team gold medal.
"I just bought a '96 Tahoe that I have $15,000 left to pay on, and this money will go straight to that," Tappin said. "As long as I have been swimming, it has never been money oriented. So for me to come away with all this money is unbelievable. I just thank my lucky stars."
With an additional $1,000 going to the best time in each event during the three dual meets, Thompson ultimately won $14,000 and three gold medals.
Teuscher, of New Rochelle, N.Y., ineligible for prize money because she still attends Columbia, won the 200 freestyle and the 200 individual medley against Germany.
Teuscher had a chance for five gold medals: the team gold, the 800 and 400 freestyles, the 200 IM and the freestyle relay. But the World All-Star team, in an 86-35 dual-meet victory over China, took away her golds in all but the 800 and the team event.
"It was a fairy tale week - an emotional roller-coaster, intense and exciting," Teuscher said. "I think this will make me stronger and more confident. I wanted to prove it to myself more than anybody else."
Thompson won the 100 freestyle and swam a leg of the winning 400 medley relay against Germany.
Saturday night's U.S. freestyle relay team was disqualified for an early start, and the World team surpassed an earlier United States time later Saturday.
Even with the relay disqualification, the United States won 10 of the 14 events against the Germans, including the first six to give it a 38-14 lead.
Thompson also had the best time in the 100 freestyle going into the final World Team-China matchup, but Martina Moravcova of Slovakia topped Thompson with a time of 55.46 seconds, .10 better than Thompson, who won the silver.
Maurer, with the best time in the 100 backstroke, won an additional $1,000.
Penny Heyns of South Africa, who won two gold medals, set a world record in the 50-meter breaststroke Saturday night, but because it is not an official event, she will not earn the $50,000 offered to anyone setting a world record in swimming.
Heyns was timed in 30.95 seconds on the first lap of the 100 breaststroke event. Because the 50 breaststroke is not an event in itself, Heyns will not earn the $50,000, a ruling that Heyns disputed after the race, saying, "there was no fine print."
In boxing, Teaunce Shepherd and Ricardo Williams, Jr. won gold medals for the United States.
Shepherd, a featherweight from Marquette, Mich., gave the United States its first gold medal of the night, defeating Russia's Andrei Kozlovsky 9-6 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.
"I can't explain how it felt," Shepherd said. "It was great."
Williams, a 17-year-old from Cincinnati, won an all-American light welterweight bout 16-4 over Ebo Elder. He also defeated Elder, from Newman, Ga., en route to the U.S. Championships and U.S. Challenge titles.
American fighters had dropped four consecutive Goodwill finals, including three Friday night.
Figure skating finished, and Michelle Kwan added a Goodwill Games gold medal to her two world and U.S. titles.
The Olympic silver medalist easily beat the field, bouncing back from a rare fall to get solid 5.9s for presentation before a near-capacity crowd that included former President Jimmy Carter. Russia's Maria Butryskaya and Victoria Volchkov were 2-3.
World champions Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov won the ice dance gold with an energetic free dance, which earned two perfect scores. The silver medal went to another Russian couple, Irina Lo-ba-cheva and Ilia Averbukh, with Elena Grushina and Rusian Goncharov of Ukraine taking the bronze.
The dream matchup in women's beach volleyball fell one match short.
Holly McPeak and Lisa Arce, the No. 2 team, were upset by Australia's Kerri Pottharst and Pauline Manser, 12-11, 11-12, 12-6, in the semifinals.
That deprived the games of a final-day gold-medal meeting between the top two teams. The No. 1 duo, Brazil's Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar, made it with a 12-5, 12-7 victory over Laura Bruschini and Annamaria Solazzi of Italy.