Two swimmers toss cold water on talk of feud
Leading medal contenders Malar, Limpert hope to push each other to Olympic podium

JAMES CHRISTIE
Sports Reporter
The Globe and Mail

Montreal -- Joanne Malar and Marianne Limpert have determined that what they have is a rivalry, not a feud.

Two of Canada's top medal hopes in the Olympic pool -- and two of the top individual medley swimmers in the world -- say their energies will be better used to push each other toward the podium in Sydney, not off it.

"We're old enough and mature enough to talk about it. Do we like each other? Yeah," said Malar after winning the 200-metre individual medley Olympic trial in 2 minutes 14.38 seconds.

Limpert, who led the race at 50 metres after the butterfly stroke and 100 metres after the backstroke, was next at 2:14.63. They're the third- and fifth-fastest times swum in the world this year and were more than two seconds under the qualifying standard for the Olympic Games.

Malar had actually prequalified for the team, but had to place first or second to confirm her reservation.

Malar, 24, of Hamilton, Ont., and Limpert, 27, of Fredericton splashed to the wall together. Together, they searched the electronic scoreboard for their names, times and placings. Simultaneously, they looked across the rope that divided their lanes, reached out and hugged each other in congratulations.

There was no sign of tension, aloofness or bitterness that had been ascribed to their relationship since the 1996 Olympics. Limpert says those feelings were never there to begin with, but people read things into the fact they followed separate itineraries during competitive seasons and "didn't hang out."

The two had a heart-to-heart talk at the spring national championships in March at the Etobicoke Olympium.

"There was never any reason for us not to like each other," Limpert said. "She's a great girl and I loved talking to her."

There had been awkward, uncomfortable moments, she admitted, "It was weird. She was having more success than I was and I was frustrated.

"It [the relationship] has been up and down since 1996. But we were also trying to figure out our lives."

They'd both felt robbed at the Atlanta Olympics when a rocketing Irish woman named Michelle Smith shot from outside the top-50 rankings to gold medal status. She has subsequently been suspended for tampering with urine samples. Smith beat Limpert out of a gold medal in the Olympic 200 individual medley and Smith's presence also bumped Malar right off the podium into fourth place.

"Things happen for a reason," Limpert said. "If I'd won the gold in Atlanta, I probably would have stopped. But I felt I could go faster and I decided to put in four more years and come back."

Malar, who was top ranked in individual medley in the world last year, has become Swimming Canada's main poster girl, and this may be her last Olympics as well. Since she and Limpert have been teammates for eight years, Malar figures the best way to go out is helping each other.

"A couple of years ago, the perception was that it was Marianne and I fighting against each other. But we had an awesome talk and we're not fighting each other, we're fighting for medals together."

There were two other finals on the middle night of the protracted Canadian Olympic finals. Officials are dragging the events out for eight days, copying the Sydney Games schedule. This is the first Olympics in which the swim competition will have three rounds for individual events: preliminaries, semi-finals and finals.

The extra round takes some getting used to. In the men's 200-metre butterfly, Edmonton's Shamek Pietucha got first spot in 1:59.79, but the time was slower than the international qualifying standard. Fortunately, he'd reached that requirement in the semi-finals when he set a Canadian record of 1:58.08.

In the women's 200-metre freestyle, two women qualified for the individual Olympic field and the top six swimmers combined to give Canada an eligible entry for the 4 x 200 freestyle relay.

Pan American Games champion Jessica Deglau of Vancouver picked up her pace in the last length to win the trial in 2:00.88 and Laura Nicholls of Waterloo, Ont., held on for second in 2:01.01. It's a return visit to the Olympics for both of them.

Joining them in the relay pool are Shannon Shakespeare of Winnipeg, Jennifer Button of Waterloo, Tamee Ebert of Port Coquitlam, B.C., and Katie Brambley of Vancouver.

Repinted with permission.

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