Vollmer sets world record in 100-fly

Associated Press

LONDON

There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that Dana Vollmer would win the gold medal Sunday night. She knew it. Her coach knew it. Her competitors knew it.

The only question was whether the world record would come with it.

“I thought there was a world record there, but I was kind of like every swimming geek, watching the yellow line (on television),” said Teri McKeever, Vollmer’s coach as well as the U.S. women’s swim coach.

Everyone else at the Aquatics Centre knew before Vollmer did that she had become the first female 100-meter butterflier ever to break 56 seconds.

“I didn’t know, honestly, with how my finish was,” Vollmer said. “I knew I was in the lead, but I didn’t know if I had gotten the world record like I wanted. It takes me a little bit to be able to see the clock, to get my goggles unfogged.”

The smile on her face told the story: She got the icing on her cake.

The Granbury, Texas, product won in 55.98, breaking the old mark of 56.06 set by Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom in 2009. It was only the second world record achieved by a female swimmer since the hi-tech suits were banned in 2010. (A third world record fell later Sunday night.)

“The last big goal time I set for myself was breaking 50 seconds in short course, and for years I tried to get it, and I never did,” Vollmer said. “So I didn’t know if, in saying the time, it was going to make something I never seemed to get. That made it part of the excitement of touching the wall and realizing that I had.”