SMU Swimmers Headed To Olympics
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DALLAS (SMU) – SMU women’s swimming alum Sara Nordenstam and incoming freshman Danielle Villars have been named to the Olympic swim teams for Norway and Switzerland, respectively.
Nordenstam is competing in her second Olympics after taking bronze in the 200-meter breaststroke in 2008 in Beijing. In May, Nordenstam won the 200 breast in a time of 2:26.91 at the European Championships.
Villars has been invited in the 100-meter butterfly and the 200-meter freestyle.
Nordenstam and Villars will be joined in London by Mustangs Laura Reback Bennett (U.S.), Anja Carman (Slovenia), Lars Froelander (Sweden), Nina Rangelova (Bulgaria), Mindaugas Sadauskas (Lithuania), Denisa Smolenova (Slovakia) and Therese Svendsen (Sweden).
Bennett was named to the United States triathlon team in May with a third-place finish at the ITU World Triathlon San Diego, clocking in with a time of 2:00:11. Bennett also represented the U.S. in
2008 Beijing Games, taking fourth place in the triathlon.
Carman is competing in her third Olympic Games. Carman placed eighth in the 200-meter backstroke at last month’s European Championships with a time of 2:12.51. She advanced to the semifinals of the 200 back in the Beijing Olympics and also competed in Athens in 2004.
Froelander, swimming in his sixth Olympics, is competing in the 100-meter butterfly. The three-time medalist earned gold in the 100-butterfly in 2000 in Sydney, and earned silvers in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay in Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta (1996).
Rangelova, who is heading into her junior year at SMU, is making her second Olympic appearance for Bulgaria. The freestyle-specialist is competing in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter events. She placed 11th in the 100-meter (55.92), 11th in the 400-meter (4:14.75) and 13th in the 200-meter (2:00.47) freestyles at the European Championships.
Sadauskas, who is heading into his senior year on the Hilltop, is competing in the 100-meter freestyle after finishing 15th in the event at the European Championships, touching the wall in 49.86.
Recent graduate Smolenova is swimming in the 100-meter butterfly, an event in which she finished seventh overall at the European Championships with a time of 59.24.
Fellow graduate Svendsen is swimming the 200-meter backstroke and is a member of the 400-meter Swedish medley relay team. At the European Championships, Svendsen was a part of the third-place 400-meter medley relay squad that completed the event with a time of 4:05.58. The backstroke specialist swam the opening leg of the relay, touching the wall in 1:03.34.
The 2012 Olympic Games will be held in London July 27 – August 12.
