Rebecca Adlington Rebecca Adlington Rebecca Adlington, OBE (born 17 February 1989) is a British former competitive swimmer who specialized in freestyle events in international competition. She won two gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 400-metre freestyle and 800-metre freestyle, breaking the 19-year-old world record of Janet Evans in the 800-metre final. Adlington was Britain's first Olympic swimming champion since 1988, and the first British swimmer to win two Olympic gold medals since 1908. She won bronze medals in both the women's 400-metre and 800-metre freestyle events in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. On 5 February 2013, Adlington retired
Vanuatu at the 2008 Summer Olympics did not accompany the delegation and arrived in China at different times. None of the three Vanuatuan Olympians progressed past the first round in their events, and thus did not earn any medals. Vanuatu has participated in the Olympics since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea; its Olympic committee (VASANOC) was founded a year earlier. Vanuatu's appearance at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, thus, marked its sixth appearance in the summer Olympics. Although Vanuatu's earlier Olympic appearances were primarily characterized by people participating in athletics (with the exception of the 2000 Summer Olympics, which included an archer), the