Karnaugh Follows Omen to Berth on Olympic Team

The omen was a green piece of gum that was stuck on Lane 4.

Ron Karnaugh didn’t like it so he moved from Lane 4 to Lane 5 to warm up for a pre-U.S. Olympic trials practice last week at the Indiana University Natatorium.

When Karnaugh wound up in Lane 5 for the trials finals in the 200-meter individual medley Friday night, Mission Viejo Nadadores Coach Terry Stoddard said: “Ron, be really careful about what you want, you might get it.”

With his wire-to-wire triumph in 2 minutes 1.56 seconds, Karnaugh got it: a berth on the Olympic team.

“My lifelong dream of being an Olympian has become a reality,” Karnaugh said.

A late bloomer, Karnaugh, 25, did not begin two-a-day practices until he was in college.

“My dad wanted me to wait until college to do double-day workouts because he thought I would burn out in high school,” Karnaugh said.

As a junior at California, Karnaugh competed in the 1988 trials and finished third in the 200 individual medley, one place shy of a berth on the team.

“Although it was disappointing, it was a blessing in disguise,” Karnaugh said. “Since I didn’t make it, it gave me strong motivation to succeed. It gave me the perseverance to make it now.”

Karnaugh dedicated his race to his parents, Peter and Jane. Not only did they cart him to and from swim practices for 10 years, they ignored the swimming instructor who issued Karnaugh a failure certificate when he was 6.

It read, “weak kick.”

“They used to call me “The Rock” because I used to sink a lot,” Karnaugh said.

He could be called that now for his 6-foot-5, 200-pound physique and strength to match that earned him the highest marks in dry-land testing at the U.S. Swimming’s International Center for Aquatic Research.

It was Stoddard’s success with large swimmers, including Poland’s Artur Wojdat, that persuaded Karnaugh to move to Mission Viejo for training in 1989, after his senior season at Cal.

In other events involving Orange County swimmers on the last day of the trials: Todd Hickman, Fullerton Aquatic Sports Team, placed 21st in the 200 individual medley in 2:07.00, and Suzi Burt of the Mission Viejo Nadadores was 28th in the 200 backstroke in 2:21.17.