Olympic Chance Comes Into View for Shelton

Three seconds is close to eternity in swimming.

But since she moved from Idaho last summer, Becky Shelton has come here from eternity. If she takes off three or four more seconds, she could be swimming in Seoul.

Shelton, a junior at University City High School, qualified last month for the U.S. Olympic swim team trials in the 200-meter backstroke and 400-meter individual medley.

She says she isn’t much of a threat in the 400 IM. But in the 200 backstroke, her time of 2 minutes 17.8 seconds at the U.S. Indoor Nationals in Orlando, Fla., easily qualified for the trials and was three seconds better than her personal best.

If she were to make similar improvement in the four months leading to the trials in Austin, Tex., the second week in August, Shelton could have a shot at one of two berths on the 1988 Olympic team.

She says that won’t be easy.

“Realistically, I think I can make the top eight,” says Shelton. “Just making it there would be quite an accomplishment. Betsy Mitchell (of the University of Texas) really has the No. 1 spot wrapped up in the two backstrokes. The next position is open to about five other girls. I think I’m in the group of 15 other people right below that.”

In order to help Shelton mentally prepare for a difficult task, Rick Shipherd, coach of the Swim San Diego club, has her concentrating on reaching the finals, not the top two.

“That takes the lack of reality out of the training,” he said. “You have to have a believable goal.”

But it isn’t inconceivable that Shelton could continue her rapid improvement and earn a trip to Seoul this September.

“The top seven ahead of her have been established,” Shipherd said. “Becky has really come on recently and is moving up. That’s to her advantage. But you’re looking at quite a ways to go.”

Shelton was born and raised in Boise, Idaho, and followed three older sisters into the pool. She trained with the YMCA in Boise and was consistently swimming the 200 backstroke in 2:20.

“I was stuck at 2:20 for a couple years,” Shelton said. “I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to continue. That’s the tough part of swimming: when you hit a plateau. But when my times started to improve, it became more fun.”

The improvement coincided with a relocation in June to San Diego. Shelton’s parents divorced last year and, after she and her mother moved here, Shelton joined Swim San Diego. Since then, her times have been dropping.

“She came here and was a lot more committed to what she wanted to do,” Shipherd said. “She’s training a lot harder with more yardage and more workouts per week. She’s become much more physically powerful.”

Shipherd said Shelton puts in about 12 workouts each week, swimming 10,000 to 12,000 yards per workout. She trains between two and four hours on weekdays and five hours on Saturday.

Twice a week, she works out with the University City team and swims in high school meets for the Centurions. She and Alison Maxwell, the defending San Diego Section champion in the 200-yard IM and 100-yard butterfly, make University City a favorite for the section team title this year.

Shelton says it wasn’t until she qualified last month for the trials that she thought seriously about the Olympics. Until then, she said, “it seemed like an unobtainable goal to me. I never took much stock in it.”

That has changed now, but it will take considerable work to turn this new goal into reality.

Shelton has all the endurance necessary for the 200 backstroke, Shipherd said. But to swim a 2:13 and challenge for a place on the Olympic team, she needs to gain speed through strength, he said.

“She is a tremendous aerobic athlete, but she lacks speed,” Shipherd said. “She needs to improve on her weight training. She just gives it lip service right now. To go where she wants to go, she has to swim faster.”

Though many female swimmers peak in their teen years, Shelton, 17, and Shipherd believe she has yet to tap her full potential.

“One of my sisters is similar to me,” said Shelton, who is 5-feet 6-inches tall and weighs 124 pounds. “When she went to college, she grew and improved tremendously. I think that’s what is going to happen to me.”

Shipherd said: “I see her shoulders getting much larger. She will fill out, and that’s what she needs. I think college swimming will be an important part of her life and consequently she’ll swim very fast in college.”

Perhaps fast enough to qualify for the Olympic team in 1992, though Shelton says the Olympics--this year and four years hence--don’t consume her.

“I can’t say I’ll be in the Olympics in 1992,” she said. “I’d like to, and I’d like to move up in the national standings. But by ’92 there might be other people who are younger and coming up.

“I’m swimming for the fun of it. I just want to do as well as I can and see how it works out.”