Olympic Dream

Micha Burden said she never expected to be competing in open-water swimming competitions.

Yet here she is, the former Huntington Beach City Lifeguard and Golden West College water polo player and swimmer, in Seville, Spain, competing at the trials of the 2008 FINA Water World Swimming Championships.

The 26-year-old is seeking to be one of the top 10 finishers in Seville, a distinction that will automatically qualify her for the upcoming Olympic Summer Games in Beijing, China.

The Beijing Games is hosting the inaugural Olympic open water swimming event with a 10K marathon swim in August.

The FINA Water World Swimming Championships began Tuesday and continue today through Sunday.

Burden first swims at the trails on Saturday.

“It’s amazing to be this close to qualifying for the Olympic Games,” Burden said. “I’ve been training a lot and am confident in my abilities.”

Most recently, Burden spent three weeks training at the Olympics Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. She left the training center on April 20 and arrived four days later in Seville.

“Our training camp at the OTC went really well,” she said Tuesday from Spain. “I was very pleased with how well I performed on a daily basis. It was nice to get away from my normal daily distractions and just focus on training.

“Our days consisted of eating, sleeping and swimming. The OTC staff really takes care of you so we did not have to do anything but train hard and eat as much as possible.”

Burden attended Golden West College from 1999-2001 and was a member of the Rustlers’ state championship water polo teams in 1999 and 2000. The latter squad went undefeated en route to winning state. Burden also swam on the school’s state title-winning women’s swim teams in 2000 and 2001 and set a national junior college record in the 500-yard freestyle.

She went on to swim on the women’s team at Cal Berkeley graduated from the school in 2004 with a degree in interdisciplinary studies with an emphasis in international relations. While at Cal, she received honorable mention All-American in the 800-free relay in 2002 and in 2004, her final in Berkeley, she earned All-American status in the 400-free relay.

She moved back to Huntington Beach after graduating from Cal.

Burden said she honed her swimming skills while working as a Huntington Beach City Lifeguard, a position she held from 2000 through 2006. At the 2006 United States Lifesaving Assn. National Surf Lifesaving Competition in Huntington, Burden was named the association’s top female lifeguard.

“I first started competing in ocean swims my first summer as a lifeguard,” she said. “I loved the laid back attitude of the local ocean races. I also started competing in lifeguard competitions and I absolutely loved it. I loved the variety of events and the uncertainty involved in every race. Running in and out of the surf is tough and it makes races so interesting because you could lose a race at the very end with just a short sprint up the beach.

“On the other hand, if you had a bad start you could always catch a wave at the very end and still pull out a victory. I found ocean races and lifeguard competitions more of a social event — there was no pressure and I always had such a good time.”

But when it comes to training for her Olympic dream, Burden said her regiment generally doesn’t include traversing the ocean.

“Unfortunately I do not get to swim in the ocean as part of my training,” she said. “When I initially started swimming, again I thought that I would be working out at the beach all the time. When I do get to swim in the ocean I usually go to Huntington Beach.”

Burden currently trains with the Mission Viejo Nadadoes and coach Bill Rose. She trains 10 times a week and averages swimming 8,500 meters per practice. In addition, she works with trainer Ken Baum in Dana Point three times per week. Each workout is roughly 1 1/2 hours and includes a mix of running, weight training, boxing and “mental training.”

Burden describes an open water 10K swimming event as a “very strategic race.”

“I always equate it to cycling in a peloton,” she said. “There is a lot of drafting involved, the pace is determined by whomever feels confident enough to lead the pack and most of the times they end up getting passed at the end. Everyone is trying to conserve as much energy as possible so that they can be the one to win the sprint at the end.

“The 10K can be very aggressive, some people are more physical than others but it is hard for the referees to see everything that is going on. There is a lot of elbowing and grabbing underwater. The buoy turns are especially brutal. It is very easy to get tangled up with another competitor while everyone is trying to maintain their position.”

She says European competitors are “dominant and experienced” in open water competitions and that there is a certain Russian female competitor she says is the “one to beat” at the trials.

“She wins everything,” Burden said of 19-year-old Larisa Ilchenko of Russia.

Burden qualified for the world swimming championships trials by being the top American female finisher at the U.S. World Championship 10K Open Water Swim trials on Oct. 20, 2007 at Miromar Lake in Florida. She won the race in 2:00.47.

As she closes in on Saturday’s trials in Spain, she believes in her chances.

“I am very confident that I have done everything possible to be at my peak on May 3,” she said. “My expectations are that I will come home an Olympian.”

MIKE SCIACCA covers sports. He can be reached at (714) 966-4611 or by e-mail at michael.sciacca@latimes.com.