Posted Jul 30, 2012, 8:20 pm
Sahuaro high school graduate Caitlin Leverenz finished third in an Olympic semifinal heat Monday morning in the 200 meter medley, and third over all. Her time of 2:10.6 places her in Tuesday's medal round.
"It was good. I think I put myself in a good lane and a good position," she said after the race.
"I went out there and swam my own race, did my own thing. A solid swim for prelims," she continued.
Placing ahead of Leverenz were Alicia Coutts of Australia and Yi Shiwen of China.
The question for Leverenz now is whether or not she can beat Yi, who finished her heat nearly a second and a half faster than Coutts.
"I don't think so, but then freestyle's not my strength, I'm a little better in the short axis," she said. "Swimming against her in the 200m IM (individual medley), a lot of times I'm ahead in the freestyle, and there's people like Katinka (Hosszu of Hungary) and Alicia (Coutts) and a lot of people in the race that have a really good freestyle and I know she's going to be one of them, and I know she's going to be ahead of me in the last 50m, so I just got to try and stay ahead as best as I can"
The final takes place on Tuesday.
Questions dogging Yi
Yi Shiwen's record setting performance in Saturday's 400 meter medley, in which she swam faster than Ryan Lochte did in his last 25m of his race, raised suspicions of doping.
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Yi swam the final 50 meters in a blazing 30.73 seconds, so the questions will come again. Leverenz wants to leave it to the sport's officials to ask the questions.
"My job is to go out there and do my job. It's not my job to fingerpoint. It's FINA's job to deal with that. The Chinese have had a history of doping, so it's not crazy to point the finger, but it's not my job," she said after the race.
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