Joyce’s Second Time Around Is Stunning

Imagine being an 18-year-old swimmer making your first appearance in the U.S. Olympic trials.

You get your feet wet in the 200-meter freestyle event, and are thrilled just to swim well enough in the prelims to qualify for the semifinals.

But then, you fall short of qualifying for the finals by just two hundredths of a second. Most 18-year-olds would be crushed, mulling over the what-ifs rolling through their minds.

Then you face another emotional hurdle when one of your coaches, Jack Bauerle, tells you that, even if you make it to the Olympic Games in Athens, he still hasn’t been able to finalize his plans to attend.

You make it to the 100-meter freestyle finals on Monday, but, it turns out to be a day that could intimidate a veteran swimmer. The big names are living up to their billing. Before you make it to the pool, world records fall in consecutive events to Amanda Beard and Aaron Peirsol.

When you step on the blocks for your final, the swimmer in the lane next to you is Natalie Coughlin, the American record holder in the 100 free.

And sure enough, Coughlin takes the early lead.

End of story?

For Kara Lynn Joyce, it was, instead, just the beginning. She stayed close to Coughlin all the way, made her move with about 15 meters to go and pulled off a major upset by finishing ahead of Coughlin and the rest of the field in 54.38 seconds. Coughlin was second at 54.42.

Joyce had made her own big splash in the company of her country’s top swimmers.

“Coming in,” Joyce said, “I definitely thought I had a chance based on my seed times and how I’ve been swimming.”

Both of her coaches, Bauerle from the University of Georgia and Jon Urbanchek with Club Wolverine in Michigan, used the same word in describing Joyce’s ability to fight off the inevitable feelings of pressure and intimidation: competitiveness.

Although this was Joyce’s breakthrough moment at the Olympic level, she has excelled at every other level. She was a high-school All-American in Michigan, won a gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle at last year’s Pan Am Games in the Dominican Republic and won her first NCAA titles this year, finishing first in both the 50- and 100-meter freestyle.

“I felt like she could do it,” said Urbanchek of Monday’s victory. “I’m very proud of her. The first 32 Olympians who trained under me were men. This is my first female. I think I’m prouder of her than I was of the other 32.”

Joyce admitted that her near miss at 200 meters, “wasn’t a fun night.” But swimming beside Coughlin, she insisted, was no problem.

Said Bauerle: “It could be unnerving for some athletes to swim next to Natalie. If you start the race behind her, before you even know what happened, she can be gone. You have to learn to be fast and easy and keep Natalie in contact. You have to feel like you have a chance to win and let your competitiveness take over the last 15 meters.

“Kara swam next to Natalie in both the prelims and the semis, so she got used to being next to her.”

Coughlin was quick to praise Joyce, but shrugged off her own finish.

“Kara has been swimming very, very well,” Coughlin said, “but, until this year, she hadn’t swam her best at big meets. Now, she’s learned to do that.

“The fact that I had already made the team in the 100 back made me a little too relaxed. I was focusing on the wrong things, things like getting my cap on and getting it to fit right. Technically, I was pretty bad.”

Urbanchek, who has been watching Joyce swim since she was 11, said she exhibited her best traits from the start.

“She always had the explosiveness along with the competitiveness,” he said. “She’ll take on anybody, male or female.”

Male? Like a Michael Phelps?

Even for Joyce, that would be intimidating.