Seeking Athens

Alicia Robinson

The road to Greece, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, wound its

way through Newport-Mesa this year, with a number of local athletes

competing for spots on U.S. Olympic teams or already planning their

trips to Athens for the 2004 games.

In some sports, a few seconds are all that decide a spot on the

Olympic team. Swimmer Stephanie Gabert, 14, is trying to shave those

seconds off her time before the Olympic trials that take place early

next month in Long Beach.

“I’ve swam since I was 3 years old, and the neighborhood that my

parents picked out had a community swim team,” said Gabert, who just

completed her freshman year at Corona del Mar High School. “Ever

since then I’ve loved the water.”

She’s been swimming competitively since she was 9 and now swims on

her school team. The breast stroke is her specialty and the 200-meter

race is her event. In recent days her best time was 2:35.30, and

she’ll need to get down to 2:20 or so -- 15 seconds faster -- to have

a shot at this year’s U.S. Olympic team.

If she makes it, Gabert will be swimming in the wake of her idol,

Amanda Beard, an Irvine native who at age 14 earned a gold medal and

two silver medals in swimming. Beard was one of the youngest Olympic

athletes in the 1996 games.

“Ever since I saw Amanda Beard in 1996 I thought, ‘Oh, if she can

do it, I can do it,’” Gabert said.

RETURNING ATHLETES

Others from Newport-Mesa have already forged a path to the games.

One of them is Misty May, a Newport Harbor High School graduate

and champion beach volleyball player. She’s well used to competitions

and traveled to Sydney for the 2000 Olympics.

“Both my parents played, so I grew up around the beaches of Santa

Monica,” May said. “They didn’t pressure me into it. They let me do

everything.”

And she did.

She was a dancer for 10 years, tried soccer and track, and began

playing indoor volleyball at 10. Now she plays professionally and

coaches at Irvine Valley Junior College in the off-season.

May and her partner have already qualified for the Olympics, and

since she’s been there before, she won’t be overwhelmed. But it is a

little different than the matches she’s used to, she said.

“You have people cheering for [the other team’s] country and there

are a lot more fans,” she said. “We were playing in front of 10,000

people.”

TRAINING AND DIET

An essential part of getting to the Olympics is training, which

can be a matter of perseverance in practicing and, for some,

discipline in diet.

Gabert said that before meets she follows a sort of anti-Atkins

diet, avoiding protein and filling up on carbohydrates, which digest

faster and yield more energy.

She spends three to six hours a day at the pool and crams in

studying and social activities around her workouts.

May’s diet is different -- no carbohydrates while training and

plenty of vitamins -- but her schedule is also hectic. She practices

on the sand for two hours about four or five times a week and does

weight training for several hours every day. Sometimes during

training she’s too tired to clean the house or cook a meal, and

because she travels often, it’s hard for her to see her fiance, a

baseball player who was recently called up to the major leagues.

“A lot of times you get to these places [and] you don’t have time

to unpack your suitcase,” May said. “It’s a great job but it can wear

you down, just the travel portion of it.”

SUPPORT SYSTEMS

Having the right coach and support from friends and family can

also be essential ingredients in Olympic glory.

Paul Gabert and his wife have been behind their daughter since

they first saw her in the pool.

“You’d get her in the water and it’d take you forever to get her

back out,” he said. “She looked like a sea otter in there.”

Now the parents take turns driving her to practice, making sure

she finishes her homework and traveling to meets with her. Paul

Gabert said he likes swimming because it’s a fun, healthy sport, and

each athlete is racing against the clock, so there’s no cheating.

While Stephanie misses out on some of her friends’ activities

because she has to get up early every day, she gets a lot of support

from her family, Paul Gabert said. Plus she gets to try out for the

Olympics, which is a chance many young people never get.

“I can’t imagine our family growing and maturing and excelling

without swimming as a part of our lifestyle,” he said.

A successful athlete can usually point to a good coach, and Orange

Coast College swim coach Dave Salo has guided one of the best: 2002

Newport Harbor High School graduate and world champion swimmer Aaron

Peirsol.

After taking a silver medal in 2000 and setting the world record

in the 200-meter backstroke in 2002, Peirsol, 20, will again try for

a gold medal this summer.

Salo has coached Peirsol since the swimmer was 13. As a coach,

Salo watches his athletes’ skill development to see if they have the

ability to reach the Olympic level, but they also have to believe

they can do it, he said.

“There’s a 24-hour mentality in preparation for being an Olympic

champion, but the physical training, I think, can be done in four or

five hours per day,” Salo said. “I think for many coaches we see

something inherent in a particular young athlete that suggests they

could be that level of swimmer.”

Athletes who have been to the games more than once are better able

to relax and enjoy the festivities, Salo said, but for most, the

Olympics are a culminating event that can be packed with pressure.

“What I try to teach my athletes that have gone ... is you’re many

times swimming the same kind of competition that you’ve swum in the

past,” he said. “It’s nothing bigger, it’s nothing smaller, than what

you’ve done.”

THE DRIVE TO GET THERE

The secret to what drives these Olympic competitors and hopefuls

is a strong work ethic and a thirst for success.

May and her then-partner came in fifth at the 2000 Olympics. While

she enjoyed visiting Sydney then, she doesn’t have any plans to

sightsee in Athens.

“We want to win,” she said. “Just stand at the very top of the

podium and that’s about it.”

Gabert will take it in stride if she doesn’t get to the Olympics

this year.

“You’ve really got to be focused and just work extra hard,” Gabert

said. “I’ve learned that I still have another chance. It’s not like

the only time I have to try out. I’ve still got another four years.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.