Stephanie Louise Rice quotes“I'm looking forward to seeing how much faster I can go and edging myself closer to being the number one in the world.”
"Stephanie Rice: To me Michael Phelps is a huge inspiration and someone I really look up to."
-Stephanie Louise Rice2006 Commonwealth Games, MelbourneRice was the gold medallist in the 200 metres and 400 metres individual medleys. In the 200 m she defeated Olympians Brooke Hanson and Lara Carroll to win the event in a time of 2:12.90, a personal best by 1.19 seconds.
2007 World Aquatics ChampionshipsRice won bronze in the 200 m and 400 m individual medleys. In the 200 m final, she recorded a time of 2:11.42, a second below the previous Australian record, behind American Katie Hoff in 2:10.13, and Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, who claimed second place. In the 400 m final, Rice recorded a new personal best time of 4:41.19, shaving 0.54 sec off her previous best.
2007 Other eventsRice set a new personal best time of 4:40.79 in the 400 m individual medley at an Italian meet in June 2007,[citation needed] edging closer to the 4:40 barrier in the event.
At the 2007 Japanese Open Championships, Rice won silver behind Zimbabwean champion Kirsty Coventry in the 400 m individual medley. In doing so, she smashed her personal best time by 3.61 seconds, cracking the 4:40 barrier and setting a new Australian and Commonwealth record of 4:37.18.[citation needed]
Australian Olympic TrialsAt the 2008 Australian Olympic trials, Rice broke the world record in both the 400 m and 200 m individual medleys. In the 400 m, she clocked 4:31.46, 1.43 seconds below American Katie Hoff's mark of 4:32.89. (Hoff retook the world record at the U.S. Olympic Trials, on 29 June 2008, with a time of 4:31.12.) In the 200 m, she clocked 2:08.92 seconds, taking almost a second off the previous record held by China's Wu Yanyan.
2008 Beijing Olympics
In Beijing, Rice won three gold medals (each in world record time) in the 200 m and 400 m individual medleys and in the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay. In winning the 400m individual medley, Rice won her first Olympic medal, Australia's first gold medal of the games and its 400th Summer Olympic medal. Recording a time of 4:29.45, she reclaimed the world record from Hoff, bettering the mark by 1.67 seconds, and became the first woman to break the 4:30 mark in the event. (Kirsty Coventry also went under 4:30 in taking the silver.) Her second gold medal of the games came on 13 August in the 200 m individual medley with a new world record time of 2:08.34. Rice prevailed after being neck and neck with Coventry throughout the last 50 m, who once again followed Rice to beat the old world record. On 14 August she won her third gold medal as part of the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay team. She led off the team and Australia were in second place at the end of her leg.
Photo 'scandal'Rice made headlines in Australia when several media outlets published pictures from her Facebook page that showed Rice having fun with fellow swimmers, including Sullivan. One of the photos, from a costume party, showed Rice dressed as a policewoman in a skimpy outfit (Sullivan was dressed as a sumo wrestler). Though the photos were relatively innocent, they seemed to portray Rice as a "party girl," and Swimming Australia responded by asking her to take them down. But as internet photo scandals go, Rice's proved harmless. "It was a bit disappointing," Rice said. "But I wasn't too upset over it. I think that it was taken the wrong way, and everyone knew that the media was twisting it around."
Awards
* 2008 Telstra Australian Swimmer of the Year.
* Swimming World Magazine named her as (female) World Swimmer of the Year as well as Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year
Medal recordOlympic GamesGold 2008 Beijing 200 m individual medley
Gold 2008 Beijing 400 m individual medley
Gold 2008 Beijing 4×200 m freestyle relay
World Championships (LC)Bronze 2007 Melbourne 200 m individual medley
Bronze 2007 Melbourne 400 m individual medley
Commonwealth GamesGold 2006 Melbourne 200m individual medley
Gold 2006 Melbourne 400 m individual medley
Pan Pacific ChampionshipsBronze 2006 Victoria 200 m individual medley
Bronze 2006 Victoria 400 m individual medley
Birthday: 6/17/1988
Nickname: Steph, Ricey
Birthname: Stephanie Rice
Hookups: Eamon Sullivan
Hometown: Brisbane, Australia
Assets: Great body, sexy voice, awesome ass, great face and body, virgin
Vices: virgin
Sign: Gemini
Height: 5'10
Job: Swimmer
Hobbies: Swimming, partying
Country of Origin: Australia
Stroke(s): Medley, freestyle, butterfly
Club: St Peters Western Swimming Club
Beard made her first Olympic appearance at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games at the age of 14, while a student at Irvine High School in Irvine, California. She won silv
er medals in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststrokes, and a gold in the medley relay. Her young-teen manner captured the attention of the media, and she was often photographed clutching her teddy bear, even on the medal stand. She won a bronze medal in the 200-meter breaststroke at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Amanda attended the University of Arizona where she captured an individual NCAA Division I championships in 2001.
. Both of her sisters, Leah and Taryn, are swimmers. Amanda placed eighth in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Celebrity car race in 2006.
