Krayzelburg Slowly Comes Around

The time did not please the world’s best backstroker. He looked at the clock and his ever-present smile was momentarily erased.

Nor did it satisfy his father, who was sitting in the stands at Indiana University’s Natatorium. He was openly wondering what went wrong in the final 10 meters.

So, did we mention Lenny Krayzelburg of Studio City won the men’s 100-meter backstroke Friday night at the U.S. Olympic trials? Or that he is headed to Sydney?

Krayzelburg, 24, has a hard time hiding his emotions. He wasn’t about to paste on a fraudulent smile and pretend he was thrilled by swimming the race in 53.84 seconds.

The world-record holder is all about world records and thought there was a decent chance for another one Friday, especially after he clocked 53.67 the day before in the semifinals, wearing a regular-old-skimpy Speedo suit.

Still, logic hit Krayzelburg when he was chatting on the pool deck afterward. Perspective was sinking in. After all, he was the ultimate example of an American success story, a youngster coming to Southern California from what is now Ukraine. He took buses to practice and his hard-working parents made incredible sacrifices for his swimming.

His infectious smile appeared again as he talked about the bad finish.

“I did a dolphin kick and there was no wall and I had to take another dolphin kick,” he said, shaking his head. “Once I touched and saw the time I was little bit disappointed because I had a good race. But I can’t complain. I made the Olympic team and that’s all that counts right now. A big monkey is off my back.”

He also chuckled about his father Oleg’s reaction.

“I think it means a lot, but, my father, I think he was really upset, he went like this,” Krayzelburg said, holding his arms wide to the side. “He was like, ‘What happened?’ He’s just showing his emotions. But I know deep inside he’s really excited for me. We’re going to Sydney.”

And was his mother, Yelena, smiling?

“My mom kept hitting him, like, ‘Stop,’ ” Lenny said.

But Krayzelburg is so talented, his mistakes--relatively speaking--did not cost him. Two other elements could have helped him break his world record of 53.60--his “Jammin” Speedo suit, which runs from the waist to the knees, and a taut battle with another star Neil Walker.

Walker, who finished second in 54.85, ended up hurting them both with his fast, explosive first 50.

“We did take off too fast; 25.62 [in the first 50] is really fast,” Krayzelburg said. “It kind of showed the last 15, 20 meters. It was like my body started to tighten up a little bit. The same thing happened to Neil. With all that adrenaline and so much excitement, you kind of expect we were going to go out that fast.”

His coach, Mark Schubert, warned him about Walker.

“Unfortunately, Mark told me before the race, ‘Swim your race and don’t swim with Neil because Neil goes out pretty fast,’ ” Krayzelburg said. “But it’s hard to do that.”

Walker’s coach, Eddie Reese, was not pleased with the race strategy, either.

“I don’t care who you are or how hard you train, you can’t go all out for 100 meters,” Reese said. “Both of them went out too fast.”

The bottom line was that Krayzelburg and Walker are both going to Sydney.

Thursday morning, Krayzelburg was talking about how great it was for Chad Carvin to have made the Olympic team in the 400 meters even if he had finished second.

“It doesn’t matter right now. It’s first or second. Second is just as good as first. What matters is what happens in five weeks,” Krayzelburg said.

What? Had the swimmer known as the Smiling Cobra suddenly gone soft during these in-touch-with-your-emotions Olympic trials?

He quickly clarified that notion.

“No, no. That’s what my dad said. I told my dad the same thing last night and he was like, ‘That’s for everyone else. That’s not for you,’ ” Krayzelburg said. “For me, obviously, I want to come in and establish myself and win my race.”

As for the world record, Krayzelburg still has Sydney.

*

The most-inspirational story that unfolded on the third night of the trials was 18-year-old Staciana Stitts from Carlsbad, who qualified for Sydney by finishing second in the 100 breaststroke in 1 minute, 7.79 seconds. Megan Quann, 16, won in 1:07.26.

The field featured swimmers with the four fastest American times in history--Quann, Stitts, Kristy Kowal and Amanda Beard. Beard, an Olympic silver medalist four years ago in this event, finished eighth and declined to talk.

Stitts, who attends Cal and trains with the Irvine Novaquatics, was diagnosed with alopecia, which caused her hair to fall out when she was in seventh grade. She spoke about coming to terms with the condition and the support of her family.

“I didn’t believe it happened,” she said. “I still feel a little eerie. My coaches, parents, teammates, everyone around me is an Olympian.”

Josh Davis won the 200 freestyle in 1:47.26. Davis, 27, broke the 12-year-old record of Matt Biondi, which was 1:47.72.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U.S. Olympic Trials

Today’s schedule:

8 a.m. EVENTS

* Men’s 100 freestyle heats

* Women’s 200 butterfly heats

* Men’s 200 breaststroke heats

5 p.m EVENTS

* Men’s 100 freestyle semifinals

* Women’s 200 freestyle final

* Men’s 200 butterfly final

* Women’s 200 individual-medley final

* Men’s 200 breaststroke semifinals

* Women’s 200 butterfly semifinals