Sports Records

National swim team coaches from the United States, Hong Kong and Australia suspect the Chinese women's team of using steroids in the wake of China's world-best performances during last month's Asian Games. Richard Quick, coach of the U.S. national team and Stanford women's team, said he felt obligated to speak out after the Chinese produced three times that rank No. 1 in the world this year and three others that are No. 2 during the competition at Beijing.

The assignment - rank the top 10 sports records that will never be broken - seemed straightforward enough until you dig into the research and realize you could easily fill the list with records from Major League Baseball alone. To diversify the field, filters were added to eliminate marks set long ago in sports that have undergone such drastic change that those records will never be approached, let alone broken. For instance, who could touch Cy Young's 511 career wins and 749 complete games from 1890 to 1911, and Old Hoss Radbourn's 59 wins in 1894?

It all started innocently enough. The Cincinnati Reds' leadoff hitter, Mariano Duncan, walked and stole second base. Luis Quinones bunted and beat it out. "I played for one run and I got 14," Manager Pete Rose said. The Reds scored 14 runs on 16 hits, all in the first inning, and went on to beat the Houston Astros, 18-2, Thursday at Cincinnati. The 16 hits set a modern major league record for one inning.

The wins kept coming. So did the games. Three in a row. Five in six days. It didn't matter that the rest of the NBA, and the calendar, conspired against the Lakers 41 seasons ago. Logistics couldn't bother them in a season when they didn't seem to grasp the meaning of Ls. The team that would win 33 consecutive games, still the longest streak for a major U.S. professional team, often arrived in a city on a midday flight and played a...

David Klingler threw an NCAA-record 11 touchdown passes and tied the NCAA season record of 47 scoring throws in a season, leading No. 12 Houston to an 84-21 victory over Eastern Washington on Saturday. A week ago, the Texas Longhorns beat Houston, 45-24, knocking the Cougars (9-1) out of a chance to win the national championship and ending their 12-game winning streak. Klingler wanted to put that behind them in a hurry.

Two days after announcing his return to the NBA, Magic Johnson signed a one-year contract extension Thursday for the 1994-95 season believed to be worth a record $14.6, payable even if he does not play. That gives Johnson the largest single-season salary in team sports, and, considering the $2.5 million he will make each of the next two years, makes the next three seasons worth $19.6 million.

The assignment - rank the top 10 sports records that will never be broken - seemed straightforward enough until you dig into the research and realize you could easily fill the list with records from Major League Baseball alone. To diversify the field, filters were added to eliminate marks set long ago in sports that have undergone such drastic change that those records will never be approached, let alone broken. For instance, who could touch Cy Young's 511 career wins and 749 complete games from 1890 to 1911, and Old Hoss Radbourn's 59 wins in 1894?

They were throwing passes and breaking records like crazy Saturday in the Astrodome, which may need a new name in honor of University of Houston quarterback Andre Ware. The Warehouse? Although Ware played only the first half in Houston's 95-21 Southwest Conference victory over Southern Methodist, he passed for 517 yards, a National Collegiate Athletic Assn. record for a half, and helped the Cougars reach another remarkable NCAA milestone--1,021 yards of total offense.

Few anticipated the oldest world record in swimming would be sunk Sunday at the TYR Swim Meet of Champions. Certainly not Kate Ziegler of Great Falls, Va. But as she completed one stroke after another in the women's 1,500-meter freestyle at the Mission Viejo Aquatic Center, it became clear that something rare was brewing on the final day of the four-day meet. By the time Ziegler completed the 15-lap race, the edges of the pool were lined with cheering spectators, coaches and competitors.

There was a stage, there was a Fuhrman and there were 20 family members and friends watching. Nobody left disappointed. The spotlight fell on one person Saturday in weightlifting at the U.S. Olympic Festival, which is exactly the way that clan likes it. Diana Fuhrman, a graduate of Van Nuys High who now lives in Simi Valley, dominated the second day of competition as she dominated the 148 3/4-pound class, setting national records for snatch, clean and jerk and combined weight.

Michael Phelps shared his celebration with a pool and a world. He put his arm around the South African kid who had just beaten him in one of his signature races, guiding the protege through the medal protocol. He went out of his way to compliment a French sprinter on what he thought was one of the five best swims of all time. He gathered his relay teammates to thank them for their help, and to tell them he might be too choked up to sing the national anthem. And then he left the pool, with a giddy smile and the greatest collection of medals any Olympian has ever seen.

How many times have we heard, over the years, the word "unassailable" in terms of sports records? It has gotten difficult, however, to hold off on adding the qualifier "seemingly unassailable" to all but the most otherworldly records. Still there are marks surely able to survive the test of time. (Well, seemingly able to survive). Add to that list the three-day, record-setting tennis match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon, the longest by far in the sport's history, both in terms of time (11 hours 5 minutes)

Back when Nike was a goddess and not something to put on your feet, Olympic runners raced barefoot. What a difference a few millenniums make. Today's runners, with the rare exception of, say, a Zola Budd, wear shoes hyper-designed to cushion heel strike, improve toe-off and minimize flex, all in ultra-lightweight materials. That's not to mention the training regimens, physical therapists and bouncier tracks.

Jackie Robinson played four sports at what was then Pasadena Junior College on his way to breaking major league baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Fifty years later, pitcher Barry Zito spent a year at Pierce College before transferring to USC, then joined the Oakland A's, where he won the Cy Young award in 2002.

Alain Bernard broke the 100-meter freestyle record for the second time in as many days Saturday, clocking 47.50 seconds at the European swimming championships at Eindhoven, Netherlands, to win his first major title. In Friday's semifinals, the Frenchman swam 47.60 to shatter the world record that Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband set at the 2000 Sydney Games.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Jim Kiick was born and raised in New Jersey and grew up a fan of the New York Giants. He later became a running back, and played on the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only modern-era NFL team to win every game in a season. So it's no surprise Kiick will be pulling harder than ever for the Giants tonight when they play the undefeated New England Patriots, who are one victory away from joining the Dolphins in the record book.

Meseret Defar, a slight and wide-eyed 23-year-old from Ethiopia who vomited two minutes before the start of her two-mile race Sunday at the Adidas Track Classic at the Home Depot Center, went out and set a world record. Orange juice, hash browns, bread and cheese had been the breakfast that made her sick. But instead of dropping out, as she feared she might, Defar finished as the crowd of 6,208 roared at her time of 9 minutes 10.47 seconds.

Stanford's Janet Evans broke Tracy Caulkins' 11-year-old American record in the 500-yard freestyle, and Leigh Ann Fetter of Texas became the first woman to break 22 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle, at the NCAA women's swimming and diving championships Thursday. Second-ranked Texas led all teams after the first day of the three-day championships with 203 points. Top-ranked Stanford is second with 177 and Florida has 122.

It was a special day for special teams Sunday around the NFL and a day for defensive units to get defensive. Nine players scored touchdowns on returns of all varieties: three kickoff returns, a punt return, three interception returns, a fumble return and, for good measure, a field-goal return. According to Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time in league history that players scored touchdowns with every possible type of return on the same day.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Whatever Barry Bonds felt remained locked inside his heart, if not the Giants' clubhouse. Bonds played what he said would be his final game in a San Francisco Giants uniform Wednesday night, an 11-2 loss to the San Diego Padres at AT&T Park in which he was 0 for 3 and committed an error but nearly homered in his final at-bat.