Faces get younger, but Lezak rolls on

He is in his swimming prime, aiming for a third straight U.S. Olympic team and a proud member of the world-record-holding 400-meter medley relay.

So when you consider where Jason Lezak of Irvine has been and where he may be headed, this question came to mind Friday morning at the TYR Swim Meet of Champions in Mission Viejo: Could 31 be the new 21 in swimming?

Lezak, who will turn 32 in November, isn’t sure. But he does know one thing when asked about the preliminaries Friday in the 100-meter freestyle at Marguerite Recreation Center -- heats with a couple of 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old. It’s unsettling.

“I don’t necessarily enjoy that, to be honest with you,” said Lezak, who Friday night won the 100 freestyle in 49.90 seconds. “That’s another reason why I like to go traveling and go to some of these meets against the best swimmers in the world because I’d rather not have to race against younger kids.”

This isn’t a fear factor, in fact, just the opposite for the affable Lezak.

“It doesn’t make me feel good if I go out there and beat a kid by three seconds or something like that. I don’t know how it makes them feel,” he said.

He was not one of those swimmers who guessed he possessed this kind of longevity.

“I never thought I would be doing this at this age,” said Lezak, who holds the American record in the 100 freestyle in 48.17 seconds in 2004. “When I was 24 and made my first [Olympic] team, it’s like, I’ll just keep on going a little bit. I had no clue I’d still be going seven years later at the level I am. I don’t think age is really a factor as far as my performance goes.”

To keep it fresh, he is taking a slightly different path this summer, opting to race in Europe, specifically in Croatia, instead of competing at the Grand Prix meet later this month in Santa Clara, Calif., against the usual suspects. And he continues to coach himself, not relying on a mentor at a club.

It’s a curious time in the four-year cycle for the swimmers. Almost like the dog days of a long pro season with the playoffs well in the distance. The World Swimming Championships, which were in Melbourne, Australia, in March, are fast becoming a distant memory, and the next meet of major significance, for the Americans, will be the Olympic trials at Omaha, June 29-July 6 in 2008.

Still, competition is competition.

Which is why Lezak will be heading off to Croatia and another reason why the German national team, in search of a measuring stick of progress, interrupted an intense four-week stretch of high-altitude training at Flagstaff, Ariz., taking a seven-hour bus ride to Mission Viejo.

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com