Women Swim to Relay Victory

The United States women’s swimming team, thanks to a victory in the 400-meter freestyle relay anchored by Jenny Thompson, defeated the World All-Stars, 65-57, at the Goodwill Games Thursday night in New York.

But Thompson, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, said the real hero was Cristina Teuscher, who won the 800 and 400 freestyles and swam the third leg on the final relay.

“I shouldn’t be complaining. Cristina had a tougher night and she did a tremendous job,” said Thompson, 25, of Dover, N.H., holding her cramping side.

“At least it got easier as the night went on, from 800 to 400 to 100,” said Teuscher, of New Rochelle, N.Y.

The dual meet victory over the All-Stars put the Americans on the inside track for the team gold medal.

Michelle Kwan dazzled the crowd and the judges at figure skating, scoring a string of 5.9s and one perfect 6 to take the lead after the women’s short program.

It was a rough night for American boxers against Russians in the semifinals. Michael Evans lost a 3-2 decision to featherweight Andrei Koslovsky, then light-middleweight Jermain Taylor of Little Rock, Ark., lost, 13-9, to Gaidarbek Gaidarbekov.

World champions Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov led the ice dance after the figure skating short program, ahead of another Russian couple, Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh.

In women’s beach volleyball, top-seeded Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar of Brazil beat Julien Manser and Kerri Pottharst of Australia, 15-9, before second-seeded Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak of Manhattan Beach defeated Eva Celboa and Sona Dosoudilova of the Czech Republic by the same score.

Meanwhile, Chinese gymnast Sang Lan was moved from a hospital on Long Island to Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan to continue rehabilitation from a practice accident that left her paralyzed.

The 17-year-old from China had been at Nassau County Medical Center since she landed on her head during vault warm-ups July 21. Doctors say she probably never will walk again.