Piper, Mania to Compete at World Championships
October 06, 2004 | Women's Swimming & Diving
University of Wisconsin swimmers Carly Piper (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.) and Adam Mania (Hickman, Neb.) will compete this week in the FINA World Swimming Championships, held Oct. 7-11 at the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Both of them will swim in the same events in which they took part at the 2004 Olympic Games.
'The World Championships should be a great opportunity for Carly and Adam to swim without the pressures associated with the Olympics,' said head coach Eric Hansen, who coached the 2002 U.S. men's team for the Championships held in Moscow. 'We're looking for some good stuff to happen. '
In August, Piper helped lead her 800-meter freestyle relay team to a world-record time of 7:53.42 and a gold medal, and she will try to repeat that performance in the preliminary and final rounds on Thursday.
The actual swimmers of the relay team will not be determined until shortly before race time. Athens lead-off swimmer Natalie Coughlin withdrew from competition due to an injury in her left foot.
Mania, who will represent Poland as he did in the Olympics, will compete in the 100-meter backstroke prelims on Thursday morning, with the semifinal round taking place that evening and the final round taking place Friday night.
The preliminary and final rounds of the 200 back, Mania's other event, are slated for Monday, Oct. 11.
The Championships, which will be televised on ESPN2, is the largest international swimming event outside of the Olympic Games. 2004 Olympic swimming stars Michael Phelps and Jenny Thompson are among many athletes from Team USA scheduled to race.
The rest of the Badger squad will begin its 2004-05 season at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8, when the team plays host to UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee at the Natatorium.
