Soni Rises to the Occasion

Rebecca Soni, a senior communications major at USC, set the world record today in the 200-meter breast stroke and earned her first Olympic gold medal. Her upset victory came over previous world record holder Leisel Jones from Australia.

Soni's time of 2:20.22 eclipsed the old mark of 2:20.54. Jones led on the first two turns, but Soni edged ahead on the third. As she cruised to victory in the final stretch, NBC's announcer screamed, "This could be the upset of these Olympic games in the swimming pool!"

This wasn't the pair's first showdown in Beijing. Soni picked up a silver medal earlier in the week after losing to Jones in the 100 breast stroke.

USC's last individual gold medal in swimming was won by Lenny Krayzelburg in 2000, and the last woman was Canadian Anne Ottenbrite in 1984 (coincidentally in the 200 breast stroke). Several Trojans have won gold medals recently on relay teams.

Later this week, Soni will swim the breast stroke leg for the U.S. in the 4x100m medley relay.

USC's overall medal count this Olympics is up to five -- three golds, one silver, one bronze.

-- Adam Rose

Photo by Ian Kington / AFP / Getty Images