With Time on Her Side, Volcan Out to Make Venezuelan Team

Erin Volcan has the time, at last, to qualify for the Olympics.

Volcan, a junior at Canyon High, has been trying to qualify for the Venezuelan Olympic team for the past six months. She has dual citizenship because her father was born in Venezuela, then moved to the United States as a teenager.

But for the last six moths, Volcan has been unclear as to what time she needed in the 200-meter backstroke.

Finally, she was told after a March meet in Argentina that to make the team, she needed a time of 2 minutes 14 seconds.

Something written in stone, or so she hopes.

“I don’t know if they’ll stick to it or whatever,” Volcan said. “They don’t always stick to what they say.”

Nevertheless, Volcan will proceed in good faith. Her last chance to qualify will be at the Janet Evans Invitational, July 13-16 at USC.

She won’t be alone. The Venezuela Olympic team will compete in the meet and, when it’s over, Volcan hopes to have new teammates.

Her fastest time in the 200 backstroke is 2:18. She is tapering her training and will shave for the meet.

“Hopefully, that will do it,” said Volcan, who has been on a two-year quest.

She began swimming in meets for Venezuela at the Central American Games in 1998 with the idea of getting to Sydney for the Olympics. Venezuela was not entirely a foreign country to Volcan, who has visited her father’s relatives there for years.

The odd part is, she was never a backstroke specialist until two years ago.

“I was a freestyle swimmer, but I started having pain in my shoulder,” Volcan said. “I started swimming backstroke because it made my shoulder feel better. The more I did that stroke, the better I got at it.”

Volcan, a Times’ Orange County first-team selection in the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke this year, has shaved four seconds off her 200 backstroke time in the last year. In March, she won the 200 backstroke at a meet in Argentina.

Now comes the test of time.

“This is my last chance,” Volcan said. “I’m not really expecting to get the time, but I’m hoping to get it.”

TOUGH CHOICE

Brad Schumacher was left no choice but to make a choice.

He had hoped to qualify for the Olympics as a swimmer and water polo player, maybe even medal in both.

It wasn’t exactly a pipe dream. Schumacher, who swims for the Irvine Novaquatics, was a member of the U.S. 800- and 400-meter freestyle relay teams at the 1996 Olympics. Both won gold medals.

He has already been world champion in two sports, as a swimmer at the Olympics and with the water polo team at the FINA Cup in 1997.

But a scheduling conflict between the swim trials and water polo training made an Olympic double impossible. So Schumacher picked water polo.

“I wanted to medal in both sports, but the time came to make a choice,” Schumacher, 26, said. “I decided water polo was the best one to do.”

*

If you have an item or idea for the swimming report, you can fax us at (714) 966-5663 or e-mail us at chris.foster@latimes.com