Beard, Salmeen Will Swim in Irvine Event

U.S. Olympic swim team members Amanda Beard and Annette Salmeen will be among more than 400 athletes competing Friday through Sunday in the Speedo International Grand Challenge at Heritage Aquatic Complex in Irvine.

Beard, 14, will represent the United States in the 100- and 200-meter breaststrokes at the Atlanta Games this summer. She recently returned from the Speedo Invitational in Phoenix, where she defeated current world record-holder Penny Heyns of South Africa in the 100 breaststroke. Beard also won the 200 breaststroke.

Beard’s coach, Dave Salo of the Irvine Novaquatics, said he expects some fast swims this weekend from Beard, a freshman at Irvine High.

“There’s fewer distractions,” Salo said. “She’s [Beard] close to home so that puts her in that comfort zone. She’ll be able to sleep in her own bed and will get a lot more rest than she did last week in Arizona.”

Beard is ranked first in the world in the 200 breaststroke and second in the 100.

Salmeen, of UCLA, finished first in the 200 butterfly at the Olympic trials in March. She will also be a member of the U.S. Olympic 800 relay team.

Also competing will be 1992 Olympian Angie Wester-Krieg, Alison Fealey, who was a bronze medalist at the 1996 Pan American Games; 1996 NCAA finalists Lindsay Benko and Jeff Julian of USC and two members of the Polish Olympic team, Bart Sikora and Bart Kizierowski.

In addition, recent Southern Section winners Philippe Demers of Santa Margarita, Wendy O’Brien of Irvine and Steve Ronson of Irvine will compete.

Preliminaries start at 9 a.m. each day and finals at 5 p.m.