Swimming Gold-medal demon

Swimming Gold-medal demon

Swimming was part of the inaugural Olympics of 1896 with the men's 100-metre and 1500m freestyle competitions. While women weren't part of that first Olympic swim meet, they did get an earlier start in swimming than a lot of Olympic events, competing for the first time at the 1912 Games.

The first major star of women's swimming was 19-year-old American Helene Madison, who became the media darling of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics for both her pulchritude and swimming abilities. Between 1930 and 1931, Madison broke the world record at every distance from 100 yards to a mile, a prelude to three Olympic gold medals in L.A.
Most gold medals

Jenny Thompson (U.S.): 8 (1992-00)

Kristin Otto (GDR): 6 (1988)

Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN): 5 (1988-96)

Amy Van Dyken (U.S.): 5 (1996-00)

Dawn Fraser (AUS): 4 (1956-64)

Kornelia Ender (GDR): 4 (1976)

Janet Evans (U.S.): 4 (1988-92)
Aussie freestyle queens

Before there was Mark Spitz, there was Australia's Dawn Fraser. The brash and spirited Aussie became the first woman to win the same event in three straight Olympics. She first won the 100m freestyle in 1956 and defended her title in 1960 and 1964. Fraser's final defence came only months after being seriously injured in a car crash that killed several family members. She lowered her Olympic record in each title defence; as for the world record, she held and lowered it for 15 years.

All told, Fraser won four gold and four silver medals from 1956 to 1964. With a slightly stronger supporting cast in the relays, Fraser's final numbers might have been even more impressive.

The Shane Gould story was nearly lost in the wake of Spitz's seven-gold-medal outing in 1972. Gould won three gold medals, along with a silver and a bronze, notching a medal in all four women's freestyle events. More remarkably, all five of her medals came in individual events.
East Germany and the doping age

There was a sea change in the women's swimming events after 1972. At the Munich Games, East Germany won no gold medals, but had a stunning turnaround in Montreal four years later, winning all but two of their events.Kornelia Ender dominated the freestyle events and went home with four gold medals and one silver in 1976. Kornelia Ender dominated the freestyle events and went home with four gold medals and one silver in 1976. (Getty Images)

The face of the 1976 East German team was Kornelia Ender, who dominated the freestyle events and went home with four gold medals and one silver. That record was bested in 1988 by compatriot Kristin Otto, who tallied six gold medals - still an Olympic women's swimming record.

Otto was dubbed the Queen of Seoul and heralded by the IOC as the outstanding athlete of the Games. But after 12 years of East German supremacy, suspicion had been upgraded to near-certainty that Otto and Ender's remarkable performances were enabled by a sophisticated doping program.

Those allegations were borne out after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and Germany was reunited. Ender acknowledged that she'd been given injections by sport doctors throughout her career, without being told what they contained.

Meanwhile, documents from the East German sport science program in 1994 revealed that Otto, among other athletes, had been administered all manner of banned substances during her days of competing, including testosterone.
New medallists, new suspicions

By 1992, the East German sports machine had been shut down, but a new country was arousing suspicion. Chinese women had never won a swimming medal before 1988, when they won four. Then they exploded with four gold and five silver in 1992, breaking several world records in the process. Xuejuan Luo provided China a golden moment at the 2004 Athens Games. Xuejuan Luo provided China a golden moment at the 2004 Athens Games. (Getty Images)

The watershed moment may have been when Zhuang Yong beat world-record holder Jenny Thompson of the U.S. in the 100m freestyle. Critics pointed to Zhuang's masculine voice and physique, as well as her acne, as signs that the Chinese had a serious doping program in place.

But Zhuang wasn't tested after she won. In those days, FINA (swimming's governing body) only did random tests on two of the top four swimmers in any given event. Even when she did pass a test five days later, the critics remained dubious. Zhuang would later comment that her training regimen was like boot camp - workouts eight hours a day, every day of the year.

Judging from her comments, the Chinese system sounded more like human rights violations than doping infractions. Nevertheless, once FINA increased its out-of-competition testing following the Chinese-dominated 1994 world championships, the reign of Chinese women in swimming mysteriously evaporated. Xuejuan Luo did provide China a golden moment at the 2004 Athens Games with a winning performance in the 100m breaststroke.
Michelle Smith and the tainted test

After winning three gold medals in Atlanta, Ireland's Michelle Smith was slapped with a four-year ban for tampering with her urine sample. After winning three gold medals in Atlanta, Ireland's Michelle Smith was slapped with a four-year ban for tampering with her urine sample. (Billy Stickland/Getty Images)In 1996, there was another suspicious overachiever in the Olympic pool suddenly piling up victories in the women's events. This time it was Ireland's Michelle Smith, who went from also-ran to unbeatable with unbelievable improvements in her personal bests times.

When Smith emerged as one of the top swimmers at the 1995 European championships, the doping accusations were already rampant, and not just because of her unlikely improvement. Her husband was a Dutch discus thrower, who had been banned over a doping infraction and whose comments seemed to condone doping. Smith also had an uncanny knack for dodging out-of-competition doping tests.

She went on to win three gold medals at the Atlanta Games, and basked in adulation back home until the anti-doping authorities finally cornered her in 1998. When officials did procure a urine sample, they ruled she tampered with it by adding alcohol and slapped her with a four-year ban.

That was little consolation to Canadian swimmers Marianne Limpert and Joanne Malar. While Limpert finished second and Malar fourth in the 200m individual medley, Smith was never stripped of her Olympic medals despite the ban.
Fit and legit

Of course, women's swimming after 1972 isn't simply a litany of doping scandals. While Otto was reaping her steroid-boosted harvest of medals, two other all-time greats came to the fore in the 1988, with American Janet Evans having the most enduring legacy.American Janet Evans she still holds the world record in the 800-metre freestyle. American Janet Evans she still holds the world record in the 800-metre freestyle. (Getty Images)

Evans won four gold medals and one silver in the distance events in 1988 and 1992, and she still holds the world record in the 800m freestyle. Remarkably, while the introduction of faster suits have seen virtually every world record shattered in the past eight years, Evans' mark remains intact.

In 1996, Krisztina Egerszegi of Hungary joined Dawn Fraser as the only woman to win the same event in three straight Olympics. The first time she won the 200m backstroke during the 1988 Games, she was 14 years old, and at 45 kilograms, was the lightest swimmer in the final.

When she won for the third time in 1996, she did it with the widest winning margin of any women's 200m event in Olympic history - 4.15 seconds. That victory was her fifth overall in the Olympics, making her the first woman in any sport to win five individual gold medals.

But it was Thompson who dethroned Otto for most Olympic gold medals. Although she never won an individual gold medal in her Olympic career, Thompson earned eight relay gold medals during her glorious career.
Canadian medallists

Anne Ottenbrite: 1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze (1984)

Elaine Tanner: 2 silver, 1 bronze (1968)

Leslie Cliff: 1 silver (1972)

Cheryl Gibson: 1 silver (1976)

Marianne Limpert: 1 silver (1996)

Nancy Garapick: 2 bronze (1976)

Becky Smith: 2 bronze (1976)
Ottenbrite highlight

Anne Ottenbrite of Whitby, Ont., wasn't even expected to compete, much less win at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Ottenbrite had a bad knee, which prevented her from swimming in the Canadian Olympic trials.

Despite a number of complaints, national swimming coach Trevor Tiffany opted to add her to the Canadian team anyway, a decision that proved prescient. Ottenbrite was the top female on Canada's most successful swim team in Olympic history, winning gold and silver in the breaststroke events, and a bronze in the medley relay.