Different Strokes

Amanda Beard is apparently suffering the post-Olympic blues.

“Look, in 10 years, there won’t be anybody who will remember Amanda Beard,” she said. “I’m just glad I was able to get the chance to go through this.”

It’s a harsh assessment of her place in swimming history, but then Beard, 15, who won two silver medals and one gold at the Atlanta Olympics, is only saying what many great athletes believe about themselves.

At least that’s the diagnosis by Summer Sanders, a gold medalist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Sanders was introduced to Beard at the 1996 Olympic trials, where Sanders just missed qualifying for the U.S. team. The two became fast friends.

“We talked about a lot of things, but primarily we talked about what I call post-Olympic depression,” Sanders said. “For many athletes who participate in the Olympics, they have met all the goals they have set for themselves, so it’s normal to be depressed after it’s all over.

“When you start working out again, the meets or the workouts aren’t the same and you start thinking things like, ‘Why am I doing this?’ I think that’s what Amanda is suffering from. It’s normal.”

After her performance in Atlanta, she became a media darling. She had breakfast with NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman in Orange and appeared on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.

Now back in the pool a year later, and the results just aren’t the same.

She finished seventh in the 200 breaststroke this month at the Janet Evans Invitational at USC. Even the 100 breaststroke, an event in which she holds the U.S. record, Beard finished a disappointing eighth, and was defeated by, among others, Carly Geehr, 12, of Rose Bowl Aquatics.

“I guess some people think that every time I dive in the pool I’m going to have a great time, but that’s not possible,” Beard said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself. I don’t want to let people down. So when I have a bad meet like the Janet Evans, I really feel bad.”

Dave Salo, Beard’s coach, said plenty has changed since last summer.

“She never felt the expectation that she always had to perform,” said Salo, referring to Beard’s pre-Olympic career. “She wasn’t in this, ‘Did you win?’ environment. Even last year, we never talked about winning.”

Instead, Salo said, the emphasis was on racing.

“When she dived into the water in ’95 and ‘96, she had that spark, and you knew she was going to have a good race,” Salo said. “At Janet Evans, she didn’t have that spark. She tried to manufacture it, but it just wasn’t there.”

Salo acknowledges Beard’s less-than-inspiring performances these last few months, but he has no doubt she can get back to her former self.

“Janet Evans, who is probably the greatest swimmer this country has ever had, was never able to duplicate her times she swam when she was younger, but she competed in three Olympics,” Salo said. “In ’95 and ‘96, Amanda improved her times and got better and better. There was no way she could continue to do that. And sometimes that’s hard for a swimmer to deal with.”

Unlike most swimmers, whose drops in time are measured in 10ths or 100ths of seconds, Beard’s drops were often seconds. Beard’s best time in the 100 breaststroke in January, 1994, was 1 minute 33 seconds. Eight months later, it was 1:15. That fell to 1:08.36 at the Olympic trials in March, 1996.

“Yeah, I look back to those days when my times were dropping and I wonder if I’ll be able to do that again,” Beard said. “And who knows, maybe I’ve swum the best times of my career. But if that’s the case, then that will be OK too.”

Beard has been training with her Irvine Novaquatics teammates for this weekend’s Senior Nationals in Nashville, Tenn.

“Right now, I’m going to Nashville to race. I want to do well there because I want to make the team.”

The two top finishers in each event at Senior Nationals will make the U.S. team that will compete in the Pan American Games (Aug. 10-13), the University Games (Aug. 25-31) and the World Championships (Jan. 11-18).

Beard has decided she will forgo the 200 breaststroke, instead focusing on the 100 breaststroke and the 100 freestyle, an event she has grown to love.

“I don’t have it in me anymore to do the 200 breast,” she said. “So I want to focus more on the 100 breast and the 100 free. I like swimming the freestyle, and think I can be pretty good at it.”

At the Southern Section Division I finals in May, Beard won the 100-yard free against some of the Southland’s top high school swimmers.

Salo said Beard probably never will be a world-class freestyler, but she has the potential to become very good in the event.

Along with her newfound stroke, Salo said Beard has matured since last year and remains determined as ever.

“I think she’s easier to talk to than last year,” Salo said. “We’re even doing some changes to her stroke, which I thought she might freak out a little, but she’s been pretty calm about it.”

Though Beard doesn’t like to talk about it, one reason for her troubles these past few months was the surgery she underwent to remove a ganglion cyst from her right wrist. The operation took place nearly seven months ago, but Beard was unable to perform her full stroke for the next four months.

“If I’m just out of the water for a day, I can feel it,” she said. “So being out so long really put me back in my training. I’m still not where I should be now.”

After Senior Nationals, Beard said she would like to take the rest of her summer off--only if she doesn’t make the U.S. team--before heading back to Irvine High, where she will be a junior. She said she wants to compete at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, but she’s also aware that three years is a long time.

“I still love to swim, but sometimes I get a little tired of working out,” she said. “Sometimes I don’t want to come. But then there are the days when I can’t wait to get in the water.”

Beard said she will always remember what Sanders told her at the ’96 Olympic trials.

“She gave me advice and talked about what I can expect after the Olympics are over. She helped me a lot. She’s one of my best friends,” Beard said. “If I don’t make it [back to the Olympics], I want to help other swimmers. There’s a girl on our team named Kristin Caverly. I think she’ll have a good shot to make the Olympics, and I want to help her all I can.”

Sanders said whether Beard returns to the Olympics is up to her. “If she wants it, then I believe she’ll do it. But if she doesn’t, that’s all right too.

“I have no doubt that Amanda will be remembered a long time. You don’t realize how important she was to our team and the Olympics. She is so honest and innocent. She swims because she truly enjoys it,” Sanders said.

“Amanda Beard will be a name I and a lot of swimmers will never forget.”