<\/p>\n
She’s not there yet, but she’s getting closer: Jessica Hardy, the LB native and former Wilson star, took another step closer to a happy ending yesterday, breaking her own world record in the 50-meter breaststroke at the World Cup in Sweden. <\/span><\/p>\n Does it make up for missing out on her dream of swimming in the Olympics in 2008, thanks to a tainted supplement given to her by a sponsor? <\/span>Of course not\u2014in fact, depending on the ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which will decide whether to follow the US’ recommendation that her ban be limited to a year, or side with the World Anti-Doping Agency in enforcing a two-year ban. But, the swim (and the gold medal she earned later in the day) confirm one important fact: Hardy is still a world class swimmer. <\/span>And with her country’s aquatics program firmly behind her, and the ability to still swim the 50-meter breaststroke faster than any other woman in history, her chances at fulfilling that Olympic dream in 2012 are looking good: she may even end the trip on top of the podium. Swimming with a four-inch tear on her swimsuit, Hardy broke her record by swimming a 28.96. “I’m really happy to go under 29,” Hardy told the Associated Press’ Malin Rising. “It’s been a goal all year. I didn’t ever think I would do it and I didn’t think it would be that easy. I’ve been training my butt off because of the stuff I’ve been through,” Hardy said, referencing the positive test and subsequent ban. “The only thing I have control over in my life is swimming and how hard I work. I have really enjoyed working hard and I guess to reap the benefits now is just kind of fun.” Not as much fun as she’ll hopefully be having in three years, but fun nonetheless. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The LB native and former Wilson star took another step closer to a happy ending yesterday, breaking her own world record in the 50-meter breaststroke at the World Cup in Sweden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2824"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2824"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}