At the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, it won’t be uncommon for the medal podiums to look quite different than they did two years ago in Rome. There are many swimmers who are accused of being “suit swimmers” only, that aren’t expected to be able to pull off the same successes that they did in their Jakeds, X-glides, and LZR’s.
However, it’s a much bigger shock for a defending World Champion to miss the meet altogether, but that’s exactly what will revealed when the psych sheets are finally released by FINA sometime this week. That’s because defending women’s 1500m champion Alessia Filippi has been left off of the roster by the Federazione Italiana Nuoto (FIN).
Filippi was the 2009 World Champion in the 1500, and the bronze medalist in the Olympic 800, but this year missed the Italian National Championship Trials to compete on Italy’s version of “Dancing With the Stars,” where she was the 2nd contestant eliminated. They gave her the chance to make up her performance at the Sette Colli Trophy in June, but she sat the meet out and thus missed her chance at World’s.
The other two returning medalists in the 1500 are Denmark’s Lotte Friis and Romania’s Camelia Potec, though Potec hasn’t been much of a factor in anything since the rubber-suits were retired.
Good thing Filippi was never in my prediction list.
Yes, I agree that Potec’s olympic gold had a little bit of luck written all over it. 200 free at the olympics were VERY slow in 1996-2004.
Van Almsick always had combination of “unlucky” and mental frailty in the biggest stage (ie. The olympics final). I think the 1992 Barcelona where she unexpectedly lost to Nicole Haislett really affected her olympics mentality that much. This was compounded again by her lost to claudia poll in 1996 by the same tenth of seconds.
Instead of going out fast like what she normally did in her WRs swims, van almsick always let others dictated the early pace of the 200 finals,… Read more »
Aswimfan – I wouldn’t call Stephanie Rice or Meagan Nay a darkhorse.
JAG – Yes, Australia had some decent medal numbers. But they certainly didn’t swim to the level that you usually expect from Australia. In 2010, they didn’t have a single swimmer (male or female) ranked at the top of the World in an event. A large portion of the team swam their best times at Australian Nationals…in March. They flopped again at Short Course Worlds. There were a few bright spots, yes, but as a country, their 2010 season was disappointing by their standards.
Potec is just the sweetest person ever. She trained in (warm) Brazil for several months due to a bone disease (that made the cold unbearable for her).
Her coach, however…not so nice! She was all, the “preconceived” notion one has on “Iron Curtain” tough-love, rude, in-your-face kind of person. She really did live up to that (my) expectation..LOL BUT, not a bad person per se: it was only her “way”.
I don’t know where Potec is training now. And yes, she hasn’t been much of a factor lately.
And I think her Gold in the 200 free was more luck than anything else: again, van Amisic failed to win Gold on her pet event.
And Potec Gold came before the… Read more »