Cristina Teuscher

Cristina Teuscher, CC'00, a member of the gold-medal winning 800-meter freestyle relay at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta, won the Olympic Bronze Medal in the 200-meter individual medley in Sidney this week. Jenny Thompson, who will begin medical school at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the fall of 2001, won her sixth gold medal last Saturday-the most ever by any American woman in either the summer or winter Olympics-when she swam the last leg of the 4x 100-meter freestyle for the victorious U.S. women's team.

Teuscher, who just wanted to come home with an individual medal around her neck regardless of the color, finished third in the final behind a strong pair of Eastern Europeans swimmers. Eighteen-year-old Ukrainian Yana Klochkova claimed the gold in an Olympic record time of 2:10.68, while Teuscher touched the wall in 2:13.32. Romania's Beatrice Caslaru grabbed the silver with a time of 2:12.57. The College alum gained four-hundredths of a second on the time she posted in Indianapolis to qualify for the 2000 games.

Thompson won her medal when she swam the last leg of the 4x 100-meter freestyle for the victorious U.S. women's team behind Amy Van Dyken, Dara Torres and Courtney Shealy who swam the first three legs.

Said Teuscher in an Associated Press story, "I'm happy I stuck in there for a medal. You can't complain when you get a medal in the Olympics."

Winner of the 2000 Honda-Broderick Cup for the nation's best female collegiate athlete, Teuscher improved considerably on her individual performances at Atlanta's 1996 games. There, she finished sixth in the 200 freestyle and eighth in the 400 freestyle.

She owns five medals from the 1998 Goodwill Games and three from last year's Pan Pacific Championships. The New Rochelle, N.Y. native went undefeated in four years of individual competition for the Lions while maintaining a 3.4 GPA, graduating with a degree in psychology.

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Jenny Thompson

Thompson and her teammates completed their relay race in 3:36.61, easily breaking China's world record time of 3:37.91, which was set in 1994. The Netherlands took silver ahead of Sweden, who claimed bronze.

"I would like to thank all of the swimmers in the relay because I could not have done it without them," Thompson said in a New York Daily News article. All six of her gold medals have come as part of team relays, something she remains eager to acknowledge.

Thompson moves ahead of American speed skater Bonnie Blair with whom she had been tied for most gold medals at five. The victory also ties her with Germany's Kristin Otto for most gold wins by a female swimmer.

When asked if the historical significance of her accomplishment had sunk in, the 27-year-old told the Daily News, "I don't feel any sense of history yet. This is just the beginning of the meet. I'm not thinking about what I've done in the past."