Word: championed
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...blessed, so privileged to be here to watch him swim live," said Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands. "He made me cry - tears of joy." And this from a two-time Olympic champion and Olympic record holder...
...nobody knows that better than Bowman. Having coached Phelps since he was 11, Bowman was the first to recognize the boy's talent, and he laid out a detailed plan to Phelps' surprised parents for making their son an Olympic champion. In the years since, Bowman, a psychology major, has become a master manipulator of Phelps, knowing just what buttons to push to propel his swimmer to another world record...
...however, thanks in part to the growing number of injuries and the more challenging skills the gymnasts are trying on the mats, the sturdier bodies, like Johnson's, at 4'9", have been claiming more titles - think Mary Lou Retton, Kerri Strug, Shannon Miller, and 2004 Olympic all-around champion Patterson. These are powerful athletes who don't look as if they would snap with a wrong turn around the uneven bars. "Traditionally, the long and lean gymnasts have lost out to the more solid ones," says Bart Conner, 1984 Olympic gold medalist. "Because the leaner gymnasts don't have...
...Good decision. Liukin's bars score of 16.650 earned her enough points to slide past teammate - and world champion Shawn Johnson - for the women's all-around gymnastics gold. The one-two finish is a first for the U.S. in the event, and marks the first time that the U.S. has defended the title after Carly Patterson won the gold...
...skills are, and a second for how well those skills are executed. The total can now range from 10.0 all the way to 17-something. "You have to do a bigger variety of difficult skills now," says Conner, who was in the stadium with his wife, the 1976 Olympic champion Nadia Comaneci, to catch the competition. "In our era, you could do one or two difficult moves, then fill out the rest of your routine with things you are comfortable doing. Now you have to be a freak of nature to be able to do a world-class routine." While...