ALL WET: It’s the swimming season, and...
ALL WET: It’s the swimming season, and Southern California will have its share of big meets. Janet Evans, graduate of El Dorado High in Placentia and two-time Olympian, will be busy; included in her itinerary will be the Swim Meet of Champions Thursday through Sunday at Marguerite Aquatics Complex in Mission Viejo. Says Mission Viejo Nadadores Coach Bill Rose: “If you want to see some of the top swimmers in the country, this is the meet to come to.” . . . Several other meets, including the Janet Evans Invitational July 21-24 at USC, will lead to the world championships in September in Rome.
MAKING A SPLASH: Swimming isn’t a glamour sport, but Aliso Viejo’s Bjorn Zikarsky says it has helped his acting career. The 6-foot-10 Zikarsky, who competed for West Germany in the 1988 Olympics and trains with the Irvine Novaquatics Swim Club with an eye on the 1996 Games, said the sport got him into USC and has been a factor in landing roles. “It’s given me the full ride,” he says. His latest gig: a commercial with NBA star Shaquille O’Neal.
GUPPIES: Top swimmers often seem as if they were born that way, but Johnny Johnson (above, with 3-year-old Scott Thomsen) says no. Johnson, co-owner of Blue Buoy Swim School in Tustin and Santa Ana, has seen some of the best--including Olympians--since going to work there in 1967. . . . “I remember some of them screaming, crying for Mommy, when they got in the water,” he says. Most parents just want to make children pool-safe, he says, but after they start learning the strokes, “things start opening up.”
JUNK FOOD: Before Sandy Zubrin, a senior-to-be at Corona del Mar High, left for the China Open Diving Invitational last month, she was warned about the food. But she still wasn’t prepared for the bat wings and dog served her first day there. “Every day was a surprise, and she really dreaded going down to breakfast,” said her mother, Bonnie. . . . Thanks to peanut butter and crackers, Sandy survived until she found some food she was used to. Zubrin will compete July 1-4 in the Southern California Diving Invitational at Marguerite Aquatics Complex.