Aussie water polo player jailed for killing baby

An Australian water polo player was sentenced to 18 years in prison Friday for killing her infant daughter, allegedly so she could focus on competing at the 2000 summer Olympics in Sydney, Agence France-Presse reports.

Keli Lane, 35, was convicted in December of killing her newborn in late 1996 after hiding the pregnancy from her family, partner, and teammates.

She claimed at trial that she gave the baby to its father shortly after birth, but an Australian supreme court judge was not convinced. The child's remains were never found.

"Prosecutors argued she killed the child, her second, because it stood in the way of her sporting and social ambitions, including representing Australia in the 2000 Sydney Olympics," AFP reports. "Her four-month jury trial heard that Lane had adopted out the children from her first and third pregnancies, which she had also kept secret, and had terminated two other pregnancies."