Thompson Wins Seventh Swimming Gold

S Y D N E Y, Australia, Sept. 20 -- Jenny Thompson won a record seventhgold medal, Misty Hyman earned her first with an improbable upsetof “Madame Butterfly” and the United States swamped Australia inthe Olympic pool today.

Thompson anchored the United States to victory in the 800-meterfreestyle relay over the host Aussies.

Thompson, 27, snapped a tie with Germany’s Kristin Otto incareer golds by a woman swimmer, while tying gymnast Vera Caslavskaof the Czech Republic for the second-most Olympic golds by a woman.

The U.S. team of Samantha Arsenault, Diana Munz, Lindsay Benkoand Thompson won in an Olympic record 7 minutes, 57.80 seconds,breaking the old mark of 7:59.87 set by the Americans at the 1996Olympics.

Thompson of Dover, N.H., also tied Australian Dawn Fraser,Kornelia Ender of Germany and fellow American Shirley Babashoff formost Olympic medals by a woman swimmer with eight. Seven ofThompson’s medals have come in relays; she won a silver in the 100freestyle at the 1992 Olympics.

Australia earned silver in 7:58.52. Germany won bronze in7:58.64.

In another noteworthy event, Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands won gold in the 100 freestyle in 48.30 seconds, denying Russian Alexander Popov anunprecedented third straight Olympic title in the event.

Hyman Upsets O’Neill

Hyman, a 21-year-old from Phoenix, stunned defending championSusie O’Neill of Australia to win the 200 butterfly.

The American led all the way to win in an Olympic record 2minutes, 5.88 seconds, just missing O’Neill’s world record by sevenone-hundredths of a second.

“I’ve played it over so many times in my head, but I neverthought it would come true,” said Hyman, who, discouraged byhealth problems and slow times, was ready to quit swimming in May.

O’Neill finished second in 2:06.58. Petria Thomas of Australiatook bronze in 2:07.12.

American Relay Women Are Perfect

The Americans are 2-0 in the women’s relays so far. Thompsonswam the anchor leg of the winning 400 freestyle relay Saturday forher sixth career gold.