Splashy Send-Off : Well-Wishers Mob Swimmer Amanda Beard, Bound for Atlanta

Sure, Olympic hopeful Amanda Beard chatted up Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” and once showed up at a swimming meet with lime green fingernail polish. But this was too much.

On Monday, in a flag-waving Olympics send-off, a fancy black Pontiac Bonneville drove the 14-year-old past a balloon-festooned sidewalk outside the Irvine Aquatics Complex. Hundreds of people sported “Team Amanda” T-shirts, and mobs of kids clamored for her autograph on the “Swimming World” issue with her covergirl portrait.

Beard alternated between smiling shyly at the crowd and burying her face in her hands, the day before her departure to Atlanta for the Olympic Games, which begin July 19.

After much prodding, she got up on stage and hesitantly summed it up in a single sentence.

“I’m really excited,” said Beard, before withdrawing to the safety and anonymity of the crowd.

Beard had started out as a good little swimmer at the local meets--the one who tagged along with her two older sisters--but who knew it would come to this. Now, the 5-foot-3, 98-pound powerhouse is ranked No. 1 in the world in the 200-meter breaststroke and is the U.S. champion in the 100-meter breaststroke.

She is the first 14-year-old to make the U.S. Olympic swimming team in 20 years. Beard, who will be an Irvine High School sophomore this fall, is an heir apparent as America’s swimming sweetheart to Placentia’s veteran Janet Evans, who is preparing for her third Olympics. Experts say she has a good shot at a medal, possibly even a gold.

But she worries, and not just about the tough Chinese swimming team (the women won 12 of 16 events at the 1994 World Championships).

Monday, overwhelmed by the attention, Beard began to cry and held on to her father, Dan Beard, for support. Friends led her to a grassy hill, where she pulled a dark blue cap over her face and then went home.

“For her, the swimming is the easy part,” Dan Beard said. “It’s the media and fanfare that upsets her.

“We don’t talk about the Olympics at home. We don’t want to build anxiety, so we talk about other things, what she’s doing in school, her friends.”

She still does her chores. She still fights with her sister for the television or her favorite chair.

Friends say success hasn’t changed her.

“She’s a paradox,” said Ashley Pyka, 15. “She’s real outgoing in front of her friends. She likes to be the center of attention with us, but she’s really shy in crowds.”

But her coach, Dave Salo, isn’t too worried about her performance in the Olympics.

Beard will swim on the second day of the meet, so afterward the press will be directed elsewhere as her story diminishes, Salo said.

“She’s pretty humble about the whole thing. She’s had a great attitude.”