Olympic Trials

LONG BEACH, Calif. - With swirling breezes blowing off Long Beach Harbor, the open-air pool was supposed to be choppy and slow. With another five events in front of him, Michael Phelps surely would conserve energy on opening night of the U.S. Olympic trials for swim ming. No chance. Phelps began the meat of the Olympic year the way he ended 2003's championship season, with a world record. He had an empty tank when he capped last year by lowering his own standard in the 200-meter individual medley.

Michael Phelps' bid at Olympic history will begin with six individual events at the U.S. Olympic swim trials. With no relays on the program, an ambitious swimmer can take chances at that high-stakes meet, which runs from Monday to July 14 in Long Beach, Calif. The top two finishers in each event will earn a spot on the American team that goes to the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, where Phelps could become the first American to try five individual events in the Olympics. Phelps figures to race 17 times in seven days in Long Beach.

Blue is for first, red is for second ... Swimming meant a kaleidoscope of ribbon colors to Katie Hoff until a fateful finish in an otherwise forgettable summer meet in Virginia. "It was a 25-yard breaststroke," Hoff said. "I remember looking up and seeing one of my friends far ahead of me, and saying, `I don't like this.' I guess the competitive side of me broke free. I started racing at that point, instead of just swimming." That occurred in 1996, the year of the Atlanta Olympics, and it's convenient to mark her growth in terms of the quadrennial.

High tide raises all boats. Just ask the teammates of Michael Phelps. The North Baltimore Aquatic Club is the host of the Argent Mortgage Long Course Championships, which concludes a four-day run tonight. Phelps is its most obvious force, but when he ships off to the U.S. Olympic trials in three weeks, he'll be joined by 11 others from the NBAC, doubling its previous trials high. That doesn't include Marianne Limpert, who's shooting for her record fourth Canadian Olympic team. Over the past 14 months, talent like Limpert, Kevin Clements and 15-year-old phenom Katie Hoff joined the NBAC because of Phelps' acclaim.

A renamed swim meet will serve as a rite of passage for Michael Phelps. The Argent Mortgage Long Course Championships opens a four-day run at the Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center tonight. What used to be known as the North Baltimore Aquatic Club Invitational is now supported by one of Phelps' corporate sponsors. The meet has traditionally been on his competitive calendar, but his days with the NBAC are numbered. It is Phelps' final tuneup before the U.S. Olympic trials, which will be conducted next month.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - How busy was Michael Phelps' day? The unique swimmer made a decathlete look lazy, gave enough blood to please the American Red Cross and had more wardrobe changes than Britney Spears. Phelps finished an eventful Santa Clara International Invitational last night exhausted, but satisfied. He easily passed a key stress test with his third and fourth victories of the weekend, which would have been unbeaten if not for Aaron Peirsol, the best backstroker in the world. "Michael had a perfect weekend as it was," Peirsol said, "it's just that someone got in the way."

PEOPLE ARE nervous. People should be nervous. It's 10 weeks and counting for the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials. The U.S. Olympic Committee wants issues resolved sooner rather than later, since it doesn't want to later have to strip athletes of medals they should never have been allowed to compete for in the first place. U.S. Track and Field officials wonder which athletes might actually make it to the starting line at its Olympic trials in Sacramento, Calif., July 9-18. Marion Jones wonders why she has joined the ranks of Barry Bonds when all those years she was heralded as the woman who would join Pele, Muhammed Ali and Michael Jordan as a transcendent world figure.

AUSTIN, Texas - If misfortune befalls Michael Phelps and other premier swimmers at the U.S. Olympic trials, they won't receive the relief that Ian Thorpe is expected to get in Australia. Thorpe was invincible in the 400-meter freestyle, until he fell off the starting block at his Olympic trials last month and was disqualified. Second-place finisher Craig Stevens is expected to withdraw from the 400 freestyle to focus on other events, enabling Thorpe to replace him and defend his title.

It's a commentary on the sorry state of distance running in the United States that Jeff Campbell thought he had a serious chance of earning a spot in the Olympic marathon. It's a reflection of his resolve that Campbell, stricken from next Sunday's U.S. trials by illness, is pondering Plan B, an attempt to get to Athens, Greece, in the 10,000 meters. Campbell, 32, was one of the most-decorated high school distance runners the state has ever seen. He won multiple championships in cross country and track and field for Randallstown High in the late 1980s.

Nearly a month on the road expanded his international profile and bank account, but this weekend, Michael Phelps will soak in a low-key atmosphere. Before he grew into the world's hottest swimmer, Phelps was just another little kid with big ears at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club. This year, he has broken records on three continents and become a budding Olympic celebrity, but his competitive calendar will conclude with a visit to those roots. Phelps is the headliner in the NBAC's 30th Christmas Invitational, which runs today through Sunday at Loyola College (starting at 6:15 each evening)