Stephanie Louise Rice, OAM (born 17 June 1988) is an Australian former competitive swimmer. She won three gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2009. On 9 April 2014, she confirmed her retirement. Career Rice was the gold medallist in the 200-metre individual medley at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, where she defeated Olympians Brooke Hanson and Lara Carroll in a time of 2:12.90, a personal best by 1.19 seconds. She also won the 400-metre individual medley. At the 2007 Melbourne World Championships she won a bronze medal in the 200-metre individual medley in a time of 2 minutes 11.42 seconds, breaking the previous Australian record by a second. American Katie Hoff won the gold in 2:10.13, with Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe in second place. Rice once again placed third, earning her second bronze medal in the 400-metre individual medley final. In a new personal best time Rice finished in 4:41.19, taking 0.54 of a second off her previous best. Rice set a new personal best time in the 400m individual medley at an Italian meet in June 2007. Rice went a 4:40.79, edging closer to the 4:40 barrier in the event. At the 2007 Japanese Open Championships, Rice beat her personal best time in the 400m. In placing second to Zimbabwean champion Kirsty Coventry, Rice set a new Australian and Commonwealth record of 4:37.18, a personal best by 3.61 sec. At the 2008 Australian Olympic trials, Rice broke the world record in the 400-metre individual medley. Rice stopped the clock at 4 minutes 31.46 seconds, 1.43 seconds under American Katie Hoff's mark of 4:32.89. On 29 June 2008, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Hoff regained the world record from Rice with a time of 4:31.12. Rice claimed her second world record of the meet, when she broke the 200-metre individual medley world record, clocking 2 minutes 8.92 seconds to slash almost a full second off the previous record held by China's Wu Yanyan. At the Beijing Olympic Games, Rice received her first-ever Olympic medal, Australia's first gold medal of the games and its 400th summer Olympic medal, winning the 400-metre individual medley in a time of 4 minutes 29.45 seconds. In the process she reclaimed the world record from Hoff bettering the mark by 1.67 seconds, thus becoming the first woman to