Vilayphone Vongphachanh (born April 26, 1989) is a female Laotian

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

freestyle swimmer Freestyle is a category of swimming competition, defined by the rules of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), in which competitors are subject to a few limited restrictions on their swimming stroke. Freestyle races are the most commo ...

."Turin 2006 Winter Olympics, Vilayphone Vongphachanh - - Yahoo! Sports"
''Yahoo!''; URL accessed May 23, 2006. As a member of the Laos team she competed at the age of 15 in the 2004 Summer Olympics in the Women's 50m Freestyle."Women's 50m freestyle results"
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

'', August 21, 2004. She also swam at the

2008 Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nati ...

. In 2004, she had the slowest time out of all 73 women in the event, 36.57 seconds. Her result was typical for Laos, which up to the 2004 games, has (with one exception) always placed last or next to last in every event it has competed in.Macy, Sue
"Make The Olympics A Family Affair"
, ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of s ...

'', August 8, 2004 In Laos, she was only able to train in a pool half the size of a standard

Olympic size swimming pool An Olympic-size swimming pool conforms to regulated dimensions that are large enough for international competition. This type of swimming pool is used in the Olympic Games, where the race course is in length, typically referred to as "long cour ...

, and like other Laotian athletes had limited times to do so. Sue Maci of ''

'' attributed the poor results to Laos being one of the ten poorest countries in the world. Previously, in 2003, she competed in the 2003 World Championships in

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."10th FINA World Championships: BARCELONA 2003 (PDF)"
originally published by ''

FINA FINA (french: Fédération internationale de natation, en, International Swimming Federation, link=yes) (to be renamed as World Aquatics by ) is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administer ...

'' and hosted by the ''Polish Swimming Federation'' (at polswim.pl); URL accessed May 23, 2006."2003 FINA World Championships Day 7 Prelims "
''

Swimming World magazine ''Swimming World'' is a US-based monthly swimming magazine that was first published in a magazine format as ''Junior Swimmer'' in January 1960. It concurrently runs online websites ''Swimming World Magazine'' and ''Swimming World News'', (known ...

'', July 26, 2003. She ranked 98 out of 100 (finishers) in the 50m freestyle, and 57 out of 58 in the 50m

breaststroke Breaststroke is a swimming style in which the swimmer is on their chest and the torso does not rotate. It is the most popular recreational style due to the swimmer's head being out of the water a large portion of the time, and that it can b ...

. As of 2006 Vilayphone Vongphachanh is a swimming judge for the FINA Masters"FINA masters officials - list no 7 (1.7.05 - 31.12.08)"
, ''

''; URL accessed May 24, 2006. In 2008, she finished 84th out of 92 swimmers with a time of 34.79 seconds, once again, she failed to qualify for the semi-finals.

References

External links

* 1989 births Living people Laotian female freestyle swimmers Olympic swimmers for Laos Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics {{Laos-swimming-bio-stub