Swimming Trials Offer Harsh Reality

Neil Walker watched the U.S. Olympic track and field trials last month and felt his throat tighten, his stomach clench, his fingers shake and his toes tingle.

Walker saw Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene, favored to win gold and silver medals in the 200 meters at the Summer Olympics in September, collapse on the Cal State Sacramento track in pain and despair, meaning that neither will even run that distance in Sydney, Australia.

Walker hoped that will not be his fate and knew that it absolutely could be. He has been the fastest U.S. swimmer in both the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter freestyle over the last two years. Which will mean absolutely nothing over the next eight days.

The U.S. Olympic swimming trials begin here today and, for the most part, the top two finishers go to the Olympics. It is possible, through a complicated mathematical calculation, that a second-place finisher might not go because of the way relay teams are chosen but, in the history of the Olympic trials, that has never happened.

“I wish it were three people like they have in track,” says Lenny Krayzelburg, world-record holder in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke, “but it’s only two and those are the rules.”

Krayzelburg, the former USC star and Ukrainian immigrant who lives in Studio City, says that he watched Johnson and Greene too, saw how much their showdown race was hyped, noticed all the buildup for one 20-second sprint.

“It wasn’t right, all the media hype,” he says. “It was an athletic event and anything can happen. And that one race was the greatest example. Nothing is for sure. You can’t count on anything. You can get sick. You can have an injury. But even with all that, this is the best way to go. The fastest swimmers at the trials should go. That’s how you have the best team.”

Exactly.

Having a clear-cut, fastest in, slowest out, kind of trial makes things easier for everyone.

The U.S. Olympic softball team has been torn apart by an 11-month arbitration process in which three players felt the selection procedures were unfair. Reportedly a settlement was reached Tuesday. Finally.

Lisa Raymond, the No. 1-ranked U.S. women’s doubles player was left off the Olympic team. On the three previous Olympic tennis teams, the No. 1 doubles player went. This time Coach Billie Jean King chose Serena Williams in place of No. 1-ranked Raymond so that Serena and her sister, Venus, could play doubles. Serena missed out on a singles berth. Those went to the three highest-ranked singles players-- Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles and Venus. Venus had threatened not to go to Sydney without her sister. Intrigue everywhere. And now the inevitable arbitration filing.

In women’s gymnastics, U.S. Olympic coordinator Bela Karolyi can name his own team even though there are two sets of qualifying events--the U.S. nationals held two weeks ago and the Olympic trials next week in Boston. After those two events, Karolyi and a committee of three others can take any of the top six finishers. Or none of them. Or any combination. But they’ll have to pick fast. NBC, televising the trials, wants the team announced five minutes after the last event on Aug. 20.

No one will be able to argue with Karolyi, but everybody can argue. The rules have been pretty public. There are no rules except Karolyi rules.

Freestyler B.J. Bedford, who is 27 years old and attending her fourth Olympic trials, has never actually made it to the Games. Bedford, who owns seven national titles as well an individual gold medal at the 1998 World Championships in the 400, says there is nothing scarier than the trials.

“It is the most frightening, hardest, most heartbreaking thing for 99.9% of us out there,” she says. In 1996 Bedford, who is from Etna, N.H., shaved her head both to psych herself up and to show her confidence. Then she finished third in the 100 backstroke and didn’t make the team.

“I succumbed to the pressure of it,” she says. “And I had a real hard time afterward. I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror. I had that bald head. I’d burst into tears. I don’t think there’s anything harder than coming to trials where it’s either, or. Either you finish in the top two or you don’t go.

“And you’re swimming against people who are friends of yours. You’re trying to take away the spot of someone who is a friend. It’s hard to explain. But it’s also what makes these next eight days so special. I wouldn’t change anything. If you swim the fastest here, you deserve to go to the Olympics. It’s that simple.”

In May, Tom Malchow set a world record in the men’s 200-meter butterfly. He’s riding high, he’s had endorsement opportunities, people know his name.

“And that all means nothing this week,” he says. “Absolutely nothing. So you have a world record. Big deal. It doesn’t get you to the Olympics. Not in our country.”

So the swimmers will get in the pool and they will swim and the top two will go to Sydney. Period. If you’re a world-record holder, a national-record holder, an owner of some infinite number of titles, it doesn’t matter. Some 16-year-old could come from nowhere and touch the wall 1/100th of a second before you and that’s it.

Tom Wilkens, who will be the favorite in the 200 and 400 individual medley, noticed Greene and Johnson’s collapse. “Being the favorite, all that means is a little more pressure. It’s a different animal and you deal with it. But that’s what sports is all about.

“When I was watching the track trials, I was thinking how it would be like this for us. OK, hopefully we’ll all finish the race. If you cramp up or pull a muscle in swimming, you don’t go down. Or you’ll go all the way down to the bottom. But maybe the pressure will slow you up and if it does, that’s they way it goes.”

The way it goes is that you go home. And that’s why swimming and track have the best trials around. Winners and losers. No whiners allowed.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com