Olympic Trials

OMAHA, Neb. -- Shortly after Michael Phelps finished the 200-meter freestyle last night, Mark Schubert, the venerable coach of the U.S. swim team, walked down onto the pool deck inside Qwest Center and threw an arm around the Rodgers Forge native. Schubert leaned in close and said something in Phelps' ear that made the 23-year-old chuckle. Phelps had just touched the wall in 1 minute, 44.10 seconds, which, in addition to being the third-fastest time in the history of the 200, also earned Phelps a second spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

OMAHA, Neb. -- In March, when Australia's Stephanie Rice broke Katie Hoff's world record in the 400-meter individual medley, Hoff wanted to jump back in the pool and offer an immediate rebuttal. For several years, the 400 IM had been, in Hoff's words, "my baby." She had worn the crown as the fastest woman to ever swim the event, and someone had taken it away. And much as she wanted to get it back, she had to remain patient. Her time, her coach told her, would come. Hoff finally got that chance last night, and with great satisfaction, she reclaimed the crown, grabbing the world record again with a blistering time of 4 minutes, 31.12 seconds in front of 14,000 at Qwest Center.

OMAHA, Neb. -- Michael Phelps isn't shy about how much he loves to play poker. He plays it with friends, plays it in casinos with strangers, and sometimes plays it online, late at night. But on the eve of the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, it's his coach, Bob Bowman, who will decide which hand Phelps will play in the Qwest Center pool this week. The event officially begins tomorrow, even though a severe storm damaged the Qwest Center yesterday and forced hundreds of swimmers practicing to evacuate the pools.

OMAHA, Neb. -- Before his second race of the day, the 100-meter backstroke, Michael Phelps got succinct advice from his coach: Be first. "I said, `OK,' " recalled Phelps, who went out and did just that yesterday in the preliminary heat, cruising through the first 50 meters before putting it into overdrive to go from fourth to first. Last night in the finals, he led from start to finish to post a time of 53.42 seconds, eighth fastest of all time and second fastest this year. At the Mutual of Omaha Swimvitational this weekend, a tuneup for the Olympic trials in the same pool in three weeks, Phelps has excelled mostly by saving his best for last.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In the span of 42 minutes last night, Towson's Katie Hoff won two gold medals and a silver at the Toyota Grand Prix competition. Michael Phelps beat himself, shaving a tick off his best time in the 100-meter freestyle - an event in which he rarely competes - allowing him to retain the third-best mark for a U.S. swimmer. It was that kind of meet, a pre-Olympic checkup in which Hoff and Phelps stretched themselves out, took stock and, with their coaches, made mental to-do lists in preparation for U.S. team trials in less than three months.

Farrah Hall's Olympic dream might have caught its second wind. The Annapolis windsurfer finished second at the RS:X team-selection trials in October after a jury's controversial decision to grant another competitor's appeal. After Hall won the regatta on the water, a jury ruled that Nancy Rios' race was affected by a tear in her sail and awarded the Miami windsurfer the trials' win. Only the first-place finisher is slated to represent the United States at the Summer Olympics. The jury initially declined to hear Hall's request for redress because it was filed too late.

When Towson native Anita Nall swam her way to silver, bronze and gold medals at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, she was 16. Nall, now 31, graduated in 1994 from Towson Catholic High and then attended Towson University. In 2000, she moved to Tempe, Ariz., and five years later, graduated with a bachelor's degree in communications and Spanish from Arizona State University. "I continued to swim until the 2000 Olympic trials, which was the last time that I did that," Nall said the other day. "Now, I'm a certified life coach, and I'm working on my holistic nutrition certification at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in Tempe."

The most dominant performance in the sixth annual Baltimore Running Festival was produced by Lyubov Denisova, as the 35-year-old from Russia won the women's title in the half marathon by more than four minutes. Denisova was timed in 1 hour, 15.14 minutes, well ahead of Shannon Saunders, a Virginia resident who was second in 1:19:49. A native of Moscow, Denisova is preparing for the Honolulu Marathon in December. She has run under 2:27 five times. Valentine Orare, a Kenyan, pulled away from Ethiopian Worku Beyi to take the men's race in 1:03.

Westminster senior Lyndsey Smith has accomplished big things. The problem is, few at her school know about them. "People look at me and ask, `You swim?' But I am used to it by now," said Smith, who has been swimming since she was 8. "In Carroll County, there are no swim teams [in high school], so it's kind of frustrating when you see your friends being able to compete for your school. I'm an athlete, but I don't have that opportunity." Next year, she will get that chance at Penn State.

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Does Michael Phelps really want to look up to Ian Thorpe on the medal podium in Athens? That was the operative question after the world's most versatile swimmer handled the best this continent could offer in the 200-meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic team trials last night. He won despite a start that his coach termed "ridiculous." He didn't post any of his precious personal bests, but tactics were more important than time in a 44-minute span that concluded with the semifinals of the 200 butterfly.