Icelandic swimmer making waves

Chris Yemma

The weather in Iceland got a little too chilly for Lara

Bjargardottir, so she packed up and moved to Southern California.

Actually, the weather was only part of the reason the UC Irvine

swimmer decided to leave her native Iceland to swim for the

Anteaters.

Bjargardottir also wanted to get an education abroad and live in a

new culture, and, oh yeah, colleges in Iceland, for the most part,

don’t have sports.

But the Icelandic weather proved to be a large reason for her

departure.

And, so, in sunny Southern California, where it rarely rains or

drops below 70 degrees, the Icelandic swimmer has left behind a place

where the sun shines for four to six hours a day in the winter, and

the temperature dips below freezing more times a year than

Bjargardottir dips in the pool.

Now, the Icelandic Anteater is proving to be a torpedo in the

water for UCI. She holds UCI women’s records in the 200-meter and 500

freestyle, the 200 breaststroke, and the 200 and 400 individual

medleys.

That’s five out of 14 individual swimming events where she holds

the school record. Next in line are Alexis Sheridan, Kim Do and

Chelsea Nagata, who each own two school records.

But when the foreign-born swimming standout arrived on the UCI

campus in 2002, she wasn’t what the other swimmers had expected.

“One girl, she told me she was surprised that I wasn’t bigger,”

Bjargardottir said. “Most people didn’t know where Iceland is, but

they just heard I was a really fast swimmer.”

Things have changed since, though.

“All the people on the swim team I’m fairly close to,” she said.

“They’re like my support system.”

On the all-time UCI record list, Bjargardottir is also second in

the 1,650 freestyle, fourth in the 100 and 1,000 freestyle and third

in the 100 breaststroke. Relay teams that she’s a part of in the 200,

400 and 800 freestyle, as well as the 400 medley, are all first in

the record books.

Basically, this Icelander is more akin to water than a penguin.

It’s as if the Anteaters have an Olympic-caliber athlete swimming for

their team.

Thing is, they do.

Bjargardottir competed in the Athens 2004 Olympics and Sydney

2000, swimming for Iceland on both occasions. She finished 36th and

27th in the 100 and 200 freestyle in Sydney, respectively, and 27th

in the 200 individual medley in Athens.

Bjargardottir said she is contemplating going back in 2008 for

Olympic round three, but has not completely decided yet. Until then,

she will be slicing through the water as an Anteater, something she

has done with extreme effectiveness.

She became the first female Anteater ever to swim in the NCAA

Division I championships when she qualified last season. In the early

stages of this season, she is already matching her best times of last

year with plenty of the season left.

“She’s definitely the best female swimmer we’ve had,” said UCI

Coach Brian Pajer, who started as head coach the same year

Bjargardottir came aboard.

“We got someone with international experience and a little bit

older than the others, which definitely helps. We knew she was going

to come in with a lot of experience.”