Tinley Park's Magnuson, 22, advances in 100 butterfly

Tinley Park's Magnuson, 22, advances in 100 butterfly

Tinley Park's Christine Magnuson looks back to see a time of 57.70 after winning a women's 100 Butterfly heat at Beijing's National Aquatics Center

BEIJING - Sleep for the Olympic rookie swimmer was not an issue, jitters momentarily dismissed.

Then came the spectacular Opening Ceremony.

"Actually, I felt fine last night until the fireworks woke me," said Christine Magnuson. "They were pretty loud."

It didn't prevent the 22-year-old Magnuson from making some noise of her own on the world stage on the opening evening of the Olympic swim competition at the Water Cube. Magnuson, of Tinley Park, had the second-fastest qualifying time in the preliminaries of the 100-meter butterfly, going 57.70 seconds.

The top time was by Jessicah Schipper of Australia in 57.58. Semifinals are Sunday and the top 16 advance to that round. The final is Monday morning in Beijing. Elaine Breeden of Stanford was sixth-fastest in 58.06. Libby (Lenton) Trickett, the reigning world champion in this event, was in the 12th spot, at 58.37.

For Magnuson, the meet couldn't start soon enough and she was pleased to be swimming on Day 1, rather than having to wait around a few more days.

"I think we were all about like, 'Let's get this started. Let's start the meet,' " she said. "It was a lot of fun out there.

"I was pretty relaxed right about before the swim. Even then, I stayed pretty relaxed. I'll be better tomorrow and the day after. So it's good to just get that first swim out of the way."