g3 － day 3.

G3 = Girls Gone Gold － thoughts??

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My kids were watching Finding Nemo the other evening, so I can't help but be singing Dory's "just keep swimming" song following today's Olympic events. For the women, Day 3 was all about the pool.

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Team USA's Natalie Coughlin [pictured above] won the gold in the 100-meter backstroke, becoming the first woman ever to successfully defend her title in the event.

Vallejo, CA, native Coughlin finished in 58.96 seconds; Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe － who earlier set a world record at 58.77 in the semifinals － earned the silver at 59.19, and American Margaret Hoelzer of Huntsville, AL, got the bronze at 59.34.

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Britain's Rebecca Adlington won the gold in the 400-meter freestyle, running down American Katie Hoff in the last 50 meters of the race and touching the wall 7/100ths of a second earlier than Hoff.

Adlington's winning time was 4 minutes, 3.22 seconds; Hoff, of Towson, MD, earned the silver with a finishing time of 4 min., 3.29 sec.; and Adlington's teammate Joanne Jackson got the bronze at 4 min., 3.52 sec.

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Australia's Leisel Jones won the gold in the 100-meter breaststroke, completing her set of Olympic medals in the event － she won the silver in 2000 and the bronze in 2004.

Jones finished a body length ahead of her competitors, touching the wall at 1 minute, 5.17 seconds. American Rebecca Soni of Plainsboro, NJ, earned the silver at 1 min., 6.73 sec., and Mirna Jukic of Austria got the bronze at 1 min., 7.34 sec.

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Another Aussie, Libby Trickett, won the gold in the 100-meter butterfly, finishing at 56.73 － the fourth-fastest time in history, and just 0.12 seconds off the world record. American Christine Magnuson of Tinley Park, IL, earned the silver at 57.10, and Trickett's teammate Jess Schipper got the bronze － her first individual Olympic medal － at 57.25.

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And last but not least, thinking outside the Watercube . . . Finland's Satu Makela-Nummela won the gold in women's trap shooting, setting an Olympic record by hitting 21 targets in the finals and finishing with a total score of 91.

Slovakia's Zuzana Stefecekova, who was tied with Makela-Nummela going into the finals, earned the silver with a score of 89. American Corey Cogdell of Eagle River, AK － the youngest contender at 21 － beat three other competitors to get the bronze.


What do we do? We swim, shoot . . . :)