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.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.