Rebecca Soni Wins Gold, Destroys World Record in Swimming Final » Gossip - Adding her name to the growing U.S. roster of swimming gold medalists at the London Olympics, Rebecca Soni absolutely dominated the 200-meter breaststroke last night, shattering her own world record to boot.

To call it an impressive swim would be an understatement.

Rebecca Soni ruled every heat she swam in the 200 breaststroke in London, setting a short-lived world record in her semifinal Wednesday night.

She topped that by winning gold - and lowering her world record from 2:20.00 to an amazing 2:19.59 - Thursday at the London Aquatics Centre.

"I'm so happy," said the New Jersey native. "I didn't focus on medals or records or whatever. I just wanted to swim my race the way I knew I could."

"It's been my goal since I was a kid to go under 2:20. That's what my coach (in high school) told me: 'You're going to be the first woman to go under 2:20.'"

"To break it again tonight, it's just unreal," she said. "I guess it's been four years in the works, training really hard every day. I couldn't be happier."

Check out the video of Soni's record-setting effort after the jump:


Rebecca joins Missy Franklin, Allison Schmitt, Dana Vollmer, Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps as winners of individual events at the 2012 Olympics.