Lenoir City's Claire Donahue wins Olympic gold

12:45 AM, Aug 5, 2012   |    comments
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The United States set a world record to win the women's medley relay Saturday at the London Olympics.

The Americans clocked 3 minutes, 52.05 seconds, slicing 0.14 off the previous mark set by China at the 2009 world championships at the height of the high-tech bodysuit era.

Missy Franklin swam the lead-off backstroke leg, Rebecca Soni did the breaststroke, Dana Vollmer competed in butterfly and Allison Schmitt had the anchor leg in freestyle.
Franklin finished the meet with four golds and a bronze, while Schmitt leaves with three golds, a silver and a bronze.

Australia touched in 3:54.02 to take the silver medal and Japan finished in 3:55.73 to take bronze.

Lenoir City's Claire Donahue raced in the preliminary heat but not the final, earning her a gold medal as well.

Donahue finished 7th in the 100m butterfly last week.

Her mother, Connie Donahue, traveled to London to watch the competitions.

"You know, USA has a huge amount of talent," she said Saturday, after returning to East Tennessee.

"Their second string is even talented enough to get fourth. It's pretty special, it just makes you proud of your country to have that kind of depth."

Donahue and her family are still letting news of the gold medal sink in.

"It's my little girl... she's just done these amazing things!" said her mother.

Her family says they are still amazed at the local support for Claire during the games.

"It's been incredible to see that kind of support... this has brought her," said Donahue's older brother, Zack.

Her younger brother, Dean, adds:

"I was just thrilled... I knew USA had good team going into it. I knew there was a good chance they were going to get a medal."