Sisters Make History

Dana Kirk made her first Olympic team in front the largest turnout at an American swimming event in history. But of those 10,016 fans in Long Beach watching her touch the wall first in the 200-meter butterfly, Kirk’s biggest supporter was missing.

Her sister, Tara, said she couldn’t watch. She gets too nervous -- even more so, she said, than she gets for her own races. Tara also was getting ready to swim her semifinal in the 200-meter breaststroke.

So while Dana was vying for a spot on the 2004 team that her sister had joined Saturday night with a second-place finish in the 100-meter breaststroke, Tara watched her sister on TV. When Dana won, Richard Quick, the women’s coach at Stanford, said Tara started to cry.

Dana’s win makes the sisters the first to swim on the same Olympic team. But making history isn’t what the Bremerton, Wash., natives were thinking about.

“I knew that it would be historic, but at the same time I didn’t really care about that as much as I just wanted my sister to make the Olympic team and wanted myself to make the team,” Tara said.

After congratulating Dana on her race, Tara got right to the point.

“I said, ‘You going to be my roommate in Athens?’ ” Tara said. “She said, ‘I don’t know.’ ”

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Jason Lezak said Michael Phelps should not be put on the 400-meter relay without a time trail. Lezak won the 100-meter freestyle, and Phelps did not race in that event on Sunday.

“Definitely the time he did means nothing,” Lezak said of Phelps’ mark of 49.05 from spring nationals.

“It’s all about where you’re at this particular time. I think the coaches that we have will demand a time trial. They’re not going to just roll over and put him on there because they’re getting pressure from everybody for all the medals.”

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Ed Moses wasn’t able to recover from his breathing problems long enough to earn a spot on the team. He placed fourth in the 200-meter breaststroke on Sunday night and sixth in the 100 breaststroke Thursday.

“It’s 100% disappointing,” he said. “My pride was on the line, and I wanted to show everybody that I came in here to give it my all regardless ... if I was feeling 100% or not.”

Moses said his doctors told him his lungs are at 70% capacity and that it’s as if he is “breathing through a straw.”

At Sydney in 2000, Moses earned a silver medal in the 100-meter breaststroke and a gold in the 400-meter medley relay.