It was a race she swam many times before, but this was the one that Team USA’s Misty Hyman had been focused on for years: the 200-meter butterfly at the 2000 Sydney Olympics against Australia’s own swimming star Susie O'Neill.
“Hardly anybody thought that it was possible,” said Hyman of her chances, in a recent interview with the Epoch Times.
O'Neill, also known as “Madame Butterfly,” was both the defending Olympic and World Championship winner in the event and had broken the world record just a few months earlier, swimming the 200-meter in 2:05.81. Naturally, she was heavily favored to repeat in her own pond.
“In the years leading up to it, my coaches and I had talked about what it would take to beat Susie and to swim a 2:05 at the Olympics.”
