She Makes Waves in Another Sport

After dedicating most of her athletic life to water polo, Julie Swail found herself in the strange but pleasant position of being a rookie again.

Swail, a Placentia native who lives in Irvine, was the captain of the U.S. women’s water polo team at the 2000 Sydney Games and came home with a silver medal. But when her spot on the U.S. team was given to a younger player in 2001, her life changed.

“I was realizing my water polo career would be coming to an end, and I’d have a lot of time every day I’d need to fill,” she said. “Our team chiropractor, Tom Gallagher, was doing ironman competitions and he had put the idea of doing a triathlon in the back of my mind.

“He said, ‘You’ve got to try it,’ so I tried the Catalina triathlon 3 1/2 weeks later.”

And so, a world-class triathlete and potential two-time Olympian was born. If all goes well for Swail at next week’s world championships or at another Olympic qualifying event June 13, she’ll win a place on the Athens triathlon team and join the small group of athletes who have represented the U.S. at the Olympics in two sports. Among that group is swimmer-turned-triathlete Sheila Taormina, with whom Swail is competing for a trip to Athens. Taormina, who won gold swimming on the 800-meter relay team in Atlanta, was sixth at Sydney in the women’s triathlon.

“I had reached the top of the water polo world, and I wanted to start over in another sport,” Swail said. “The excitement comes from being in a new sport and not being the best. It’s exciting to learn and to improve.”

The U.S. can send three women and three men to Athens to compete in the triathlon, in which competitors swim 1.5 kilometers (nine-tenths of a mile), ride a bicycle for 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) and run for 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).

The first berths went to Hunter Kemper of Longwood, Fla., and Barb Lindquist of Victor, Idaho, the top men’s and women’s finishers at the Race to Athens-Honolulu on April 18. The top U.S. men’s and women’s finishers at next week’s International Triathlon Union championships in Madeira, Portugal, will earn the second spots. The final berths will be determined at a competition in Bellingham, Wash., on June 13.

If the top U.S. finisher at Portugal has already won an Olympic spot, the next-highest U.S. finisher will get the Olympic berth.

Swail, 31, estimated her chances of making the Olympic team at 50-50. She’s coming off a 10th-place finish at a World Cup race in Mazatlan, Mexico, last week, her best World Cup performance since she turned pro in 2003. She previously was the 30-34 age-group U.S. and world champion in 2002.

“My U.S. teammates have looked at me as up-and-coming,” she said. “The rest of the world doesn’t understand my potential, because I am so new to the sport. There’s really no pressure on me....

“Swimming is my strength, and for some of the people I’m competing with, that’s the weakest for them. In relation to them, my run is on par and my bike is stronger.” The bike riding “translated well from water polo because of my leg strength. It’s a matter of endurance for me, because in water polo we had quarter breaks. Running was the hardest for me to pick up.”

Her goal is to run the 10K in under 37 minutes. Her time was around 42 minutes when she began, but she has gotten faster since she started working with Coach Sue Davis, who is a duathlete (run-bike-run). Swail also gave up her coaching job at UC Irvine to train full time and supports herself through occasional substitute teaching and giving private lessons. She relies on sponsors for equipment, and on friends and family for financial and emotional support.

“My parents have been incredibly supportive,” she said of her father, Jon,and mother, Judy, who live in Placentia. “Part of them thought that when my water polo career was over, I’d have a different career and settle down and not be an adrenaline junkie anymore, but here I am.

“I want to keep doing this as long as I keep improving and enjoying it.”

Here and There

The ankle injury that led Maurice Greene to pull out of the 100-meter final at Martinique last weekend is minor, and he’s planning to run in a Grand Prix meet at Osaka, Japan, next weekend as scheduled, according to his agent, Emanuel Hudson. Greene twisted his ankle stepping out of the blocks in the first round and it was throbbing by the final, so he withdrew as a precaution, Hudson said.

Tim Montgomery, who had lost to Greene the previous week at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays, won the final in Martinique in 10.08 seconds. At the same competition, Sydney 100-meter hurdles bronze medalist Melissa Morrison won her signature race in 12.63 seconds, the world’s fastest time this year.

Gymnast Chellsie Memmel, who won gold medals on the uneven bars and in the team competition at last year’s world championships, broke her left foot three weeks ago and will sit out the U.S. championships, June 2-5 at Nashville. She also will sit out the Olympic trials, to be held June 24-27 at Anaheim. Memmel, however, can petition to attend the final selection camp in mid-July.

Kathy Kelly, senior director of the U.S. women’s program, said Memmel’s prognosis was good and that she should be able to prepare for the camp.

The first two spots on the Olympic team will go to the top two all-around finishers at the trials. The final four spots and three alternates will be chosen at a camp at the women’s training center in Texas. National and international results will be considered in choosing those last spots.

The final men’s qualifiers for the U.S. gymnastics championships were determined last weekend at Colorado Springs, adding to a deep pool of Athens hopefuls.

“It will be a historic Olympic team,” said Kevin Mazeika, who will coach the men at Athens. “We’re second in the world right now and have tremendous depth and are positioned well, and everyone’s focused on the goal. There’s a good synergy about the whole men’s team.”

Only 105 days until the Athens Games.