Stephanie Rice

Among different sport events in Olympics, swimming is one of the most popular events, which is for both men and women. The women’s 200m individual medley event of the 2008 Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Aquatics Center on 11th - 13th August. This event would be remembered for several years due to the great performance by an Australian swimmer, Stephanie Rice. She has set the world records in 200m and 400m individual medley and has won 3 gold medals. Stephanie Rice has carved out a niche for herself in the history of Olympic games. Now you must be eager to know more about Stephanie Rice and her career.

Biography of Stephanie Rice

Stephanie Rice was born on June 17, 1988 in Queensland, Australia. She is blessed with a height of 176 cm/5’9". She attended Clayfield College in Brisbane, Queensland. She received the training by Michael Bohl from the St Peters Western Swimming Club at Brisbane. She is expert in freestyle and medley disciplines.

Stephanie started her career in the year 2006. She won the gold medal in the 200m individual medley at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. In this event, she defeated Olympians Lara Carroll and Brooke Hanson in a time of 2:12.90. She also won gold medal in 400m individual medley.

Again 2007 was a great year for Stephanie Rice. At the 2007 Melbourne World Championships, she earned a bronze medal in the 200m individual medley. She finished in a time of 2 minutes, 11.42 seconds and broke the previous Australian record by a second. America’s Katie Hoff won the gold medal in 2:10.13 and Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry got the second place. Rice once again secured the third position, achieving second bronze medal in the 400m individual medley final with a personal best time of 4:41.19.

Stephanie Rice continued her excellent performance at an Italian meet in June 2007. She set a new personal best time of 4:40.79 in the 400m individual medley. At the 2007 Japanese Open Championships, Stephanie Rice broke her personal best time in the 400m individual medley. She finally passed through the 4:40 barrier. She set a new Australian and Commonwealth record of 4:37.18.

The year 2008 would be memorable for Stephanie Rice. She participated in the prestigious 2008 Olympic Games and set a world record. At the 2008 Australian Olympic trials, Stephanie Rice broke the world record in the 400m individual medley. She finished in 4 minutes 31.46 seconds, while America’s Katie Hoff finished in 4:32.89. At the U.S. Olympic trials, Hoff again set the world record of 4:31.12. Stephanie Rice claimed her second world record at the 200m individual medley. She finished in 2 minutes, 8.92 seconds and broke the previous record set by China’s Wu Yanyan.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Stephanie Rice won the first gold medal for Australia. She won the 400m individual medley in a time of 4:29.45. It is a new world record in the 400m individual medley. She became the first woman to break the 4:30 in the event. It is her first-ever Olympic medal.

She won her second gold medal on August 13, 2008 in the 2008 Olympics. She set a new world record time of 2:8.34 in the 200m individual medley. Stephanie triumphed after being neck and neck with Coventry. On August 14th, she won her third gold medal in Olympics as a part of 4 x 200m freestyle relay team.