Word: thompson
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Pham Phu Xuan borrowed money to buy a motorbike the day he got his current job as production manager for J. Walter Thompson. "I was so happy. It was the first thing I did," he says about that day four years ago. There were 1,000 applicants for just five jobs, and Xuan had neither a college degree nor money to buy a suit and tie for the interview. His friends told him he was wasting his time. They didn't know him well enough...
...Olympic meets have meant trouble for Thompson's personal dreams. Eight years ago, she headed to Barcelona as a world-record holder and favorite for four medals. She finished second in the 100 free. "I choked big time," says Thompson, making no excuses, even though rumors had swirled that China's champion had used performance-enhancing drugs. In 1996, it was worse. She failed to even make the U.S. team in any individual events...
...crushing disappointment of the 1996 U.S. trials was a watershed. "I decided this hyper-intense, narrowly focused life wouldn't work with my much more relaxed personality," she says. From an athlete who started swimming as a schoolgirl, this was a revelation. Thompson realized she didn't need to swim anymore, but she wanted to--as a means to an end. "I began to see swimming for what it gave me: friends, the opportunity to travel the world, and the chance to earn a living doing something I love...
...Sydney, Thompson is a threat to spoil the party for the gold-hungry Australians because she combines technical perfection with an aggressively competitive psyche--either of which could provide a margin of victory in races that are often won by hundredths of a second. In the fly, her muscular shoulders power in and out of the water with such remarkable grace that Quick points out the obvious: "Watch Jenny's stroke. It's the best in the world...
...Thompson will face stiff challenges in the 50-m freestyle, the 100-m butterfly and 100-m freestyle from the likes of Dutch swimmer Inge de Bruijn, teammate Dara Torres and Australia's Susie O'Neill. But it's a new, more personal century for Thompson. "For a long time she was a better team swimmer than an individual one," says Quick. "That time is gone. Now she's the best she ever has been." And, more important perhaps, have fun being...