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　　U.S. swimmers had great success at the Athens Olympics four years ago. But they did even better at last year's World Championships in Melbourne, so there are high hopes for a big medal haul¹ in Beijing.
美国游泳选手4年前在雅典奥运会上取得了傲人的成绩。而在去年墨尔本的世界游泳锦标赛上，他们的成绩更上了一层楼。人们期望美国游泳运动员在北京奥运上获得更多的奖章。
Swimmers won 28 medals, or 22 percent of the U.S. Olympic Team's total in Athens. Twelve of them were gold, nine silver and seven bronze. At the 2007 World Championships Americans had their best performance ever, amassing² 36 medals, with 20 of them gold. They also set 12 world records.
美国游泳运动员在雅典奥运会上总共赢得28面奖牌，是美国运动队在雅典奥运会上所赢得奖牌总数的22% ，其中有12枚金牌、9枚银牌、7枚铜牌。在2007年的墨尔本世界游泳锦标赛上，美国游泳运动员共获36枚奖牌，其中有20枚金牌，这是他们有史来最好的成绩。他们还刷新了12项世界纪录。
Five of those records came from superstar Michael Phelps, who won seven gold medals in Melbourne. In Beijing he will have a chance to break the single Olympics record of seven golds set by compatriot Mark Spitz back in 1972 in Munich.
超级巨星迈克尔.菲尔普斯一人就在墨尔本世锦赛上打破了5项世界纪录，赢得了7枚金牌。这次在北京他将有机会打破另一项奥运纪录，那就是美国游泳运动员马克.施皮茨1972年在慕尼黑创造的纪录--一人独得7枚金牌。
But he told reporters here, that's not his focus.
不过，菲尔普斯在北京对记者说，这不是他的重点。
"You guys are the ones who are talking all about it. I'm not saying anything," Phelps said. "You know I'm just going through what I have to do, you know preparing myself the best way I can to compete as fast as I can. And that's my goal and that's what I'm going to stick with. I haven't said anything about breaking any record, or going after any record. I'm just going to go out there and try to do something that I want to do."
他说：“是你们这些家伙在大谈特谈(打破7枚金牌的纪录)，我可什么也没说。你知道，我只是完成我要做的事情，那就是充分让自己做好准备以最快的速度竞争。这就是我的目标，这就是我所要坚持的。”
Phelps added that only he and his coach know what his goals are at these Olympics.
菲尔普斯补充说，只有他和他的教练知道他在奥运会上的目标。
The U.S. woman swimmer getting the most attention is Dara Torres. And for good reason. At 41 years old, she is the oldest ever to make a U.S. swim team, and the only one ever to make five Olympic teams.
在美国女子游泳选手中，最值得关注的是41岁的达拉.托雷斯，她有充分的理由受到关注，她是美国有史以来入选美国奥运游泳队的年龄最大的成员，同时也是唯一参加过五届奥运会的“五朝元老”。
"I am just looking forward to standing³ up and competing," Torres said. "I have at least one relay⁴ [race] and the 50-meter freestyle. I just want to go out there for those 40-something-year-olds and show that age is just a number and go out there and have fun."
她说：“我只是期待著起来去参加竞争，我至少参加一项接力比赛，还要参加50米自由泳比赛。我想跳进游泳池中，向那些40多岁有孩子的妇女展示，年龄仅仅是一个数字而已，你可以去那里并享受其中的乐趣 。”
The schedule for the swimmers at these Olympics will be different than any other. Normally they swim preliminaries in the morning and finals in the evening. In Beijing, preliminaries will be in the evening and finals will be in the morning. That's because U.S. television network NBC, which paid the biggest rights fee to broadcast the games, wanted to have the finals live in prime evening viewing hours in the United States, and the request was granted.
这次北京奥运的游泳比赛日程安排和以前的奥运会有所不同。通常游泳运动员上午参加预赛，晚上参加决赛。而在北京奥运会上，预赛将在晚间举行，而总决赛将在上午举行。这是因为美国全国广播公司(NBC)的电视网为比赛转播权支付了巨额费用，因此希望决赛能够在美国晚间黄金时段现场直播。美国全国广播公司的要求获得了满足。
Michael Phelps said it should not make a difference.
"It's the Olympic Games. You have to be ready to swim no matter what - morning, night, midday, midnight," he said. "It doesn't matter. All that aside, you have to be ready to swim no matter what. You're representing your country and that's an honor. It doesn't matter for me. I'll be ready to swim whenever I have to."
On Saturday, the day after the Opening Ceremonies, Olympic swimmers will begin nine consecutive⁵ days of competition. The first medals will be awarded Sunday.
星期六，在北京奥运会举行开幕式的第二天，游泳选手将开始进行连续9天的比赛。 第一面游泳项目的奖牌将于星期天颁发。