Beard Wins Gold, Sets Olympic Record
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American Amanda Beard (search) won her first individual Olympic gold medal Thursday night, holding off Australian Leisel Jones in the 200-meter breaststroke. Beard won in an Olympic-record time of 2 minutes, 23.37 seconds — 0.23 seconds better than Jones, who was under world-record pace for the first 150 meters.
Jones took silver in 2:23.60. Anne Poleska of Germany earned bronze in 2:25.82.
Beard and Jones are the two fastest female breaststrokers in history. Jones owned the world record for two days in July before Beard broke it at the U.S. trials with a time of 2:22.44. The American also is the reigning world champion.
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Beard, of Irvine, Calif., earned her sixth career Olympic medal. She also won a silver in the 200 individual medley in Athens. Four years ago, she was the bronze medalist in the 200 breast.
Jones earned a bronze in the 100 breaststroke at these games.
Defending Olympic champion Agnes Kovacs of Hungary finished fifth in the 200.
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Brooke Hanson of Australia, the silver medalist in the 100 breaststroke in Athens, finished eighth and last.