A Wonderful Place, but No Place Like Home

Amanda Beard’s excellent adventure in Atlanta is great by day, not so wonderful when she settles down at night with her favorite childhood stuffed bunny.

“It was white--it’s kind of dirty now,” she says.

Beard, 14 and from Irvine, had never been away from home for more than a few days, but she’s been on the road since early July. And another comfort zone has shrunk in the last two days because her personal coach, Dave Salo of the Irvine Novaquatics, isn’t allowed to work with her on the deck since he isn’t a member of the U.S. Olympic team staff.

“I’m not homesick when I’m talking to people during the day, but laying in bed, I start thinking about my animals and my sisters, I am a little more [homesick],” Beard said Wednesday.

She is favored to win medals in the 100-meter breaststroke and 200 breaststroke, and some publications have picked her to win the 200. She believes there could be a world record in both races.

But the sheer largeness and importance of the Olympics have not overwhelmed Beard. She was one of the main media attractions Wednesday and was much more at ease with the large group of reporters than she had been at a club send-off celebration at home in Orange County, which left her unsettled.

“She tends to get embarrassed in front of her friends and everyone was there,” Salo said. “She’s good in crowds where she doesn’t know anybody.”

Wednesday, Beard was laughing for photographers as she showed off her red fingernails--with a message on them: GO USA AMANDA BEARD.

She is planning to get a tattoo of the Olympic rings on her upper leg. “My dad doesn’t mind the idea,” Beard said. “I don’t want a great big one.”

For now, she is content with shopping in the village, coloring in teammate Jeremy Linn’s frog tattoo and letting Janet Evans do her laundry. Evans is sharing a suite with Beard in the village, along with Kristine Quance, Melanie Valerio, Annette Salmeen and Jilen Siroky, another 14-year-old.

And there is Sheila Taormina to keep things light. “Everything she does is hilarious,” Beard said. Taormina and Beard struck up an acquaintance with a couple of athletes from Argentina.

“Sheila had to speak Spanish to them, and I’ve taken about a year and a half and I was trying to say a little bit, ask questions,” Beard said. “I asked them what their names were and where they were from. It was neat to communicate. Then we were sitting by some Koreans and they were talking. I was like, ‘Wow, this is different.’ ”

Evans has been helpful--outside the pool. She has the wisdom of her previous two Olympic experiences, but she doesn’t want to give an information overload.

“People always ask me if I give Amanda advice. I did her laundry yesterday, but I don’t give her advice,” Evans said.

Salo, clearly, would like to have the chance be on the deck with his young swimmer before her first Olympic race, the 100 breaststroke on Sunday. They have been communicating by leaving messages for one another.

“It’s a little frustrating not being able to work with my swimmer,” he said. “My anxiety is I’m a coach, and I’m not coaching.”