Stephanie Rice and Emily Seebohm will compete in the 2011 Santa Clara International Grand Prix
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games gold medallist, Stephanie Rice and Emily Seebohm are going to participate in the
2011 Santa Clara International Grand Prix, during June, 2011.
The Santa Clara Grand Prix is the last stop of the 2010-2011 USA Swimming Grand Prix Series, where the world’s
elite swimmers will participate to prepare for the 2011 Shanghai World Championships, this July. The Santa Clara meet is of immense importance for international swimmers, as this is the only worldwide competition prior to the world titles.
Currently, the Australian swimming elites are attending a five-week altitude training camp, with their 28 swimmers
at the new Australian training camp base in Mexico. The squad of 30 Australian strong swimmers will participate at different international meets to prepare themselves for the upcoming world titles.
Australian squad includes high-profile swimmers like Leisel Jones, Hayden Stoeckel, Ryan Napoleon, Ashley Delaney,
Belinda Hocking and Michael Klim.
Rice, who secured her spot in the Australian team to Shanghai, has recovered from an injury just before the Australian
trials. Rice is the triple gold medallist of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, including the gold medals of 4*200m freestyle relay, 200m Individual Medley (IM) and the 400m IM. Conversely, Seebohm’s fastest back-stroke kick paved way for the Australian 4*100m medley
relay team to secure the gold medal at the same Olympic Games.
Three Australian swimmers, Geoff Huegill, James Magnussen and Eamon Sullivan hesitated to join the Mexican training
camp and decided to train in Sydney for the World Championships. The squad of these three Australian athletes will train under the supervision of Grant Stoelwinder, to prepare for the forthcoming Shanghai Championships.
Rice will only participate at the Santa Clara International before the world Championships. Seebohm will make
her first international appearance at the South West Classic Championships in Tucson and then at the Santa Clara meet.
Stephanie expresses firm belief in making a splash at the upcoming world stages, saying that her shoulder injury
kept her away from competitive swimming for a long time but now she is ready to defend her titles at these world stages.
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