Mormon U.S. Olympic swimmer heads to semifinal

BEIJING — A U.S. Olympic swimmer and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints placed fourth in her preliminary heat of the women's 100-meter freestyle Wednesday in Beijing, landing her a spot in Thursday's semifinal.Lacey Nymeyer's split time for the first 50 meters was 26.42 seconds and 28.20 seconds for the second 50 meters, adding up to 54.62 seconds for the entire 100.  Nymeyer will be in lane one of the first semifinal on Thursday in Beijing. The race is scheduled to start at 8:10 p.m. Wednesday MDT.Nymeyer was part of the silver-medal-winner U.S. 4-by-100-meter freestyle relay team earlier this week.A first-timer to the Olympics, Nymeyer placed third in the 100-meter freestyle at U.S. Olympic Trials, which earned her a spot on the 4-by-100-meter freestyle relay. But, a few days later, she was bumped up to second in the individual race after winner Dara Torres withdrew from the event, giving Nymeyer a chance to swim in Beijing.Nymeyer swam on the gold-winning and world-record breaking 4-by-200-meter freestyle relay at the 2007 World Championships. At the same meet, she also swam on the 4-by-100-meter freestyle relay that took silver and set an American record.Her grandfather, Ed, was a basketball player at the University of Arizona in the 1950s. He is now in the Arizona Basketball Hall of Fame. Nymeyer's father, Aaron, was a high school basketball and football player, and her two brothers play football and basketball.