Sun, Jul 05, 2009
 Swimmer Matt Grevers, left, who trains in Tucson, and former UA swimmer Lacey Nymeyer, appearing at news conference Monday at the UA, both qualified for the Beijing Olympics with top-two or top-three finishes at the trials last week. With them is UA head coach Frank Busch, who tutors both swimmers, holding his 7-week-old granddaughter, Tori. Busch will be an assistant coach for the USA men's team in Beijing. A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star
Jorgensen Brooks Group Counselor Sales and Marketing Everready Glass Sales Reps Trades/Construction RANCHO RESORT MAINTANANCE POSITION Mechanical Komatsu Equipment Co Resident Field Mechanic Finance and Accounting Charles E. Gillman Company Accounting Specialist Health Care Sierra Tucson Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Administrative & Professional Tucson Urban League CEO/President SportsOpinion by Greg Hansen : Trials: infinitely close callsHappy or sad, athletes' emotions tied to mere inches, hundredths of a second
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.08.2008
Dara Torres arrived at the Olympic swimming trials accompanied by a strength coach, a sprint coach, a masseuse, a chiropractor, a stretching specialist, a swim coach and a nanny.
Lacey Nymeyer arrived in Omaha with an iPod, a Speedo swimsuit and a coach who was splitting time with 38 other swimmers.
Torres beat Nymeyer in the 100 freestyle by 0.24 of a second.
Arizona Wildcats swim coach Frank Busch described the difference as "a blink."
Two Olympians. One is 41, the other 22. One is a wealthy, twice-divorced corporation unto herself who had a baby with a partner employed as a reproductive endocrinologist. One is still working on her college degree, uncertain her parents can afford to travel to China for the Beijing Olympics.
They could not be more different, and yet they are separated by a blink.
Had Nymeyer dawdled on the starting blocks in the 100 freestyle, responding tardily to the starter's beep, she could have finished last in the finals. Eighth. The difference between Nymeyer's third and Amanda Weir's eighth was 1.12 seconds.
The difference between being an Olympian and being left home is sometimes so slight it can make you crazy.
UA senior Lara Jackson missed a berth on the USA swimming team by 0.06 of a second.
Former UA discus thrower and football player Doug Reynolds missed a spot on the USA track and field team by one inch. One. Little. Inch.
"Looking back, making the Olympic team came down to a couple hundredths of a second," Tucson resident Matt Grevers said Monday in a news conference at McKale Center. "It's a really hard team to make."
Grevers shocked the high-profile Ryan Lochte by 0.18 of a second in the 100-meter backstroke.
It was probably no more than the length of one of the 6-foot-8-inch Grevers' fingers.
UA junior All-American swimmer Annie Chandler failed to make the Olympic team by 0.52 of a second in the 100 breast stroke. She will wait until 2012 to try to make up that blink.
Former UA decathlete Jake Arnold, a two-time NCAA champion, missed the Olympic team by 381 points. He finished fourth; the first three finishers are bound for Beijing.
Do you know how agonizingly close a 381-point differential is in the decathlon?
If Arnold had high-jumped three more inches, ran the 110 hurdles 0.76 of a second faster, cut 1.92 seconds off his 400 meter time and stretched to the finish of the 100 meters 0.36 of a second faster, he would have edged third-place finisher Tom Pappas by one point.
Over two days and 10 events of competition, Arnold essentially missed making the Olympic team by three eye-blinks and three inches.
Unlike Dara Torres, Arnold does not have a staff of seven to help him prepare for the Olympic trials. He worked at a Tucson Home Depot to make ends meet during the last year. More than 70 people from his hometown of Santa Rosa, Calif., contributed to a fundraiser to keep Arnold in training money.
His coach, UA jumps coach Sheldon Blockburger, might not have been able to afford the trip to Beijing; one of his neighbors contacted me asking if I could recommend ways to stage a fundraiser if the need had arisen for Blockburger to spend two weeks in China.
Sahuaro High School senior Caitlin Leverenz missed making the Olympic swimming team by 0.85 of a second in the 200 breast stroke. Had not 27-year-old Playboy centerfold model Amanda Beard decided to put in "two serious months" of training in a late attempt to make her fourth Olympic team, Leverenz would be en route to Palo Alto, Calif., today for two weeks of pre-China training.
Beard edged Leverenz by 0.85 of a second Friday. Watching from the Qwest Center bleachers at pool-level, I could not visibly see any difference between Beard and Leverenz. In fact, I thought Leverenz had out-touched Beard.
The differences between the two are staggering. Beard engaged UCLA coach Cyndi Gallagher for two months of intensive training. Gallagher has been UCLA's head coach for 17 years and during that time has coached the USA Junior National Team and twice at the World University Games.
Leverenz is coached by Franz Resseguie of the El Dorado Aquatics Club in Tucson, which doesn't have its own facility.
And yet the ultimate difference between Gallagher's swimmer and Resseguie's swimmer was more of a wink than a blink.
"That young lady, Caitlin, has everything to be proud of," Busch said Monday in his capacity as an Olympic coach. "Her coach has done a great job of preparing her. Getting that close is remarkable."
And painful.
Grevers described his Tucson training, his evolution from near-Olympian to true-Olympian, in technical terms that involved getting stronger, "clearing water" and developing "faster arms."
In Omaha, Grevers improved his best time in the 100 backstroke from 54.24 to a career record 53.19.
That's a 1.05-second improvement over 10 Tucson months.
Wink, wink.
|
|
14 Comments on this story