Stephanie Rice

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.

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 their 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 was in second place at the end of her leg. Read Less