In Briefs: Hansen, Rice, Seebohm Confirmed for Santa Clara GP Appearances

The Santa Clara Grand Prix, which runs from June 15th-19th, is one of the world’s final leadups to the FINA World Championships in Shanghai, which begin a month later, and thus will be a popular destination for swimmers looking to test their final preparations.

Aside from the usual suspects at USA Swimming, the stars who have thus far confirmed attendance at the meet is Brendan Hansen, in his first return from unofficial retirement, and Australians Emily Seebohm and Stephanie Rice.

It’s been clear that Hansen’s been on the comeback trail for months now, but when he hits the water for the first time in Santa Clara, it will be official. My guess is that he’ll get the opportunity to square off againast America’s other comeback breaststroker, Ed Moses (with the caveat that we don’t know when his 9-month clock started ticking, and thus don’t know if he’s eligible), as well as the impressive USC crew (Eric Shanteau and Mike Alexandrov) against whom he’ll be competing for Olympic spots in 2012. I don’t expect him to win a race there, but it will be a significant measuring stick on early returns.

As for the Australian women, they are part of a 30-strong contingent that will spend the next few weeks at Australia’s home-away-from-home in Mexico, working on altitude training. Seebohm and Rice will make the trip up the coast for the Santa Clara International, and Seebohm will also test her strength at the Southwest Classic in Tucson, Arizona the week before.

Both meets will be important to Seebohm, who has had several major health scares early this year – she was hospitalized with Swine Flu in February and then collapsed on deck at the Australian World Championship Trials in April. She withdrew from the meet after that, but still qualified in her primary event: the 100 backstroke, and will now have to prove her fitness to complete a full meet without issue.

Rice is also itching to prove her health after shoulder surgery late last year, and a as-good-as-expected return at the Aussie World Championship Trials. After saying she felt no pain at that meet, she should now feel more comfortable with really letting loose in practice, which could accelerate her climb back to the top of the mountain.

The biggest names who have stayed back in Australia are Eamon Sullivan, who broke his heel the last time he trained in Mexico, James Magnussen, and Geoff Huegill, who will be training in Sydney under coach Grant Stoelwinder. It will be an interesting dynamic with Huegill and Magnussen in the same pool, after a bit of a social-media back and forth between the two over the location of Australia’s 2012 Olympic Trials.

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aswimfan
13 years ago

oh ok I get it now. I also agree with you re:top 10 ever if he pulls a triple.

aswimfan
13 years ago

in fact, no other breaststroker, male or female, has ever pulled olympics double-double.

aswimfan
13 years ago

I didn’t say Kitajima the greatest swimmer ever.
I said he is arguably the greatest male BREASTSTROKER ever. please read my comment again.

no other male breaststroker has ever pulled double-double at the olympics.

aswimfan
13 years ago

In 2003, 2005 and 2007 world champs, Kitajima won 3 individual golds, and Hansen also won 3.
I don’t get where’s this myth where Hansen won more frequently than Kitajima?

Kitajima = the greatest male breastroker ever.

Joe Augustine
13 years ago

Well if you remember correctly, it was Hansen and not Kitajima that was the world record holder in the 100 and 200 breastrokes. Although Kitajima no longer owns either of those because of the suits, he has still dominated the breastroke scene for a long time. Not to mention Hansen has been out of competition for a while…so it should be very interesting to see

Bryan
13 years ago

I don’t really get the Hansen/Kitajima rivalry. Is it really a rivalry when one side always wins? And wins handily at that.

David Rieder
13 years ago

Even better than Moses… if they can get Kitajima to Santa Clara, that would be cool! Wonder how the trash talk would play out with Hansen now that Kitajima knows English.

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Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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