LONDON — Elizabeth Beisel was favored for gold, but she's quite satisfied with silver.
The rising Florida junior
entered the 400-meter individual medley Olympic final as the reigning
world champion with the fastest time in the world each of the last two
years and the No. 1 seed from Saturday morning's prelims.
She swam another personal best
Saturday night, but was beaten by China's Ye Shiwen, who set the first
women's world record since the controversial high-tech swimsuits were
banned two years ago.
“It's finally a medal for me at
the Olympics,” Beisel said. “A gold is obviously something that would be
a little bit cooler, but I really can't complain about anything that
I've done tonight.”
Beisel led after 300 meters, but
Ye, 16, swam the final 100 freestyle more than three seconds faster to
win by 2.84 seconds in 4:28.43. Ye's last 50 was faster than Ryan
Lochte's last 50 in winning the men's 400 IM.
“She had the race of her life,”
Beisel said. “Congratulations to her a million times over. It's
definitely hard getting second, but I can't complain at all.”
It's the first Olympic medal for
Beisel, the youngest member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic swim team who
placed fourth and fifth in two events in Beijing. After those Olympics,
she chose Florida over fellow pool powerhouses Cal and Texas, earned
2011 SEC Female Freshman of the Year and 2012 SEC Female Swimmer of the
Year and won the 2012 NCAA title in the 200-yard backstroke.
She'll swim the 200-meter
backstroke at the Olympic Aquatics Centre on Wednesday and Thursday. She
placed second at the U.S. trials in the event and is ranked seventh in
the world this year.
“I don't really expect too much
from that,” Beisel said. “I'm just going into it with an open mind and
hoping for the best. A medal of any color would be great.”
