Swimmers thriving; softballers lose again

Thursday, Sept. 21, 2000 | 11:43 a.m.

SUN WIRE REPORTS

SYDNEY, Australia -- Lenny Krayzelburg captured Olympic swimming gold No. 2 for himself today, Tom Dolan had to settle for one and Jenny Thompson came out of her last hunt for individual gold with none.

Overall, the U.S. swimmers emerged from the latest pool party in Sydney with another fistful of medals.

The day's other big story was the Team USA softball team, which lost again.

Virtually invincible coming into the Olympics, the U.S. team lost its third straight extra-inning marathon. This time Australia beat the Americans 2-1 in 13 innings.

Peta Edebone hit a two-run homer off Lisa Fernandez in the bottom of the 13th to win it for the Aussies. The Americans had 112 straight victories before the Games.

It was a bittersweet session as Thompson couldn't challenge double gold-winner Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands in the 100-meter freestyle and Italian Massimiliano Rosolino beat Dolan in the 200 individual medley.

Krayzelburg hugged and kissed his parents after swimming an Olympic record 1 minute, 56.76 seconds in the 200-meter backstroke. The Ukrainian immigrant won the 100 backstroke Monday.

The medal raised Thompson's total medal count to nine, including seven relay golds. She's now the most decorated woman swimmer in history, surpassing Dawn Fraser of Australia, German Kornelia Ender and American Shirley Babashoff, who have eight each.

Thompson, 27, stuck with swimming after the Atlanta Games to try to win a gold all by herself. Now that opportunity is gone.

Dolan won the 400 individual medley Sunday, but said he was hurting down the stretch Thursday.

Thanks to the swimmers, the United States increased its lead in the medal count Thursday. The Americans finished the day with 31 medals (11 gold, 10 silver, 10 bronze) to 25 for Australia (8-9-8). France (7-9-4) and Russia (4-8-8) each had 20.