Post-Olympic Routine Has Kept Sandeno Busy

After building to a physical and emotional peak at the Olympics, many athletes cut back their training or take a year off. Swimmer Kaitlin Sandeno still sets her alarm for 5:30 a.m. and has added events to her repertoire, intent on pushing herself and avoiding monotony.

The Lake Forest native, who anchored the U.S. 800-meter freestyle relay team to a world record at Athens and won a silver medal in the 400-meter intermediate medley and bronze in the 400-meter free, will swim seven events at this weekend’s TYR Swim Meet of Champions in Mission Viejo. Besides the 200 and 400 IM races, which she called “my babies,” she plans to compete in the 100- and 200-meter backstrokes, 100- and 200-meter free and the 50-meter free.

With two events tonight, three Saturday and two Sunday, Sandeno has no time for a post-Olympic letdown.

“It’s been kind of challenging to get back into it,” she said Thursday in a telephone interview. “Having new events is a way to just keep things interesting. I get bored easily, and being an IM-er it’s important to be strong in all strokes.

“And looking as far as the U.S. team goes, the 200 back isn’t that strong an event for us or in the world. It’s wide open. The 200 back is probably the most painful, but we were brought up to swim lots of different events, so I’m used to it. When I go to a meet I don’t want to swim one or two events. I don’t like to watch.”

Out of the pool, she has added the role of spokeswoman for an asthma awareness campaign. Sandeno learned she had asthma a decade ago, when she was 12, and she must inform national and international swimming authorities about the medication she takes so she won’t incur doping violations.

“Nobody’s really educated about asthma and I’m really glad I can help spread awareness,” she said. “It’s great to be able to tell people, ‘I’m an Olympic athlete and I can still pursue an athletic career.’ I really enjoy talking about it and doing on-camera interviews, because that’s something I want to do after my swim career.”

Not that she’s ready for that yet. She said she’s looking forward to the Mission Viejo meet because her parents can attend and because it will provide a measure of her preparation for the World Aquatics Championships in Montreal in July.

“I’ll be working on race strategy and little things,” she said. “My body has been changing after the Olympics too. Racing, for me, is so much better than practice.”

L.A. Legacy Lives

The latest round of grants and expenditures approved by the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles to promote youth sports programs in Southern California totaled $2,125,734, another example of a gift that keeps on giving.

The AAF was founded with the area’s share of surplus funds from the 1984 Olympics and has spent more than $149 million since its inception to fund programs and instruction for kids and coaches.

The largest recent grant was $200,000 to the new Tiger Woods Learning Center in Anaheim, for a putting course. Other major grants went to Students Run LA, to support 2,000 L.A. Unified School District students as they train and run in the L.A. Marathon, a youth sports program in the Rampart District, and programs that teach swimming, sailing, rugby and rowing. Other grants will provide equipment for physically challenged kids, fund after-school programs and underwrite courses for coaches.

The AAF also runs a summer program, which teaches water sports to more than 9,000 kids at 97 public schools.

Grant applications and information are available at the AAF’s website, www.aafla.org.

Here and There

USA Water Polo is seeking a coach for the women’s national team after failing to agree on financial terms with its first choice, Newport Harbor High Coach Bill Barnett. Assistant coach Heather Moody, a two-time Olympian, will coach the team through FINA World League play this summer and the world championships in Montreal.

Seven of the nine U.S. players who qualified for the World Badminton Championships, to be held at the Arrowhead Pond Aug. 15-21, are from Orange County. It will be a short trip for Eva Lee of Orange and Jennifer Coleman of Newport Beach (women’s doubles), Mesinee Mangkalakiri of Garden Grove (women’s doubles and mixed doubles), Khan Bob Malaythong of Orange (men’s doubles and mixed doubles), Howard Bach of Orange and Tony Gunawan of Fullerton (men’s doubles) and Raju Rai of Anaheim (men’s singles and doubles).

Officials of the international bobsled and skeleton federation (FIBT) will meet with organizers of the Turin Games and officials of the international luge federation (FIL) next Thursday to discuss possible changes to the Olympic bobsled and luge track at Cesana Pariol. Turin organizers and the FIL announced plans to make it safer, but the FIBT said it hadn’t been consulted and didn’t think changes were needed.