For athletes, it’s not just a race

With powerful speed and drama, former Newport Beach High School star

swimmer Aaron Peirsol crystallized his chances for medals in Greece.

First, he impressed by winning the 100-meter backstroke with the

fastest time this year, 53.4 seconds, at the Olympic Trials in Long

Beach.

Then came the real show. The 20-year-old Peirsol shattered his own

world record in the 200-meter backstroke, touching the final wall in

1 minute, 54.74 seconds, the first sub-1:55 swim. His previous best

was 1:55.15.

With his feats last week, and similar accomplishments from people

like Newport Harbor High School graduate Misty May, a champion beach

volleyball player, and five men who came of age on the UC Irvine

water polo team, local athletes have forged a path from our own

neighborhoods, local pools and beaches to Athens.

They will represent their nation well. We know they will, because

to get to where they are going -- whether or not they were very

conscious of it -- their accomplishments have placed them in

positions to represent their schools, their cities, their families.

Ultimately, they compete for the love of it. We selfishly relish

how they win. But as they travel to the cradle of Western

civilization, a piece of them will be with many of us.

No matter how far away, it was still here, for many of them, where

the lessons, the classes, the beaches and the pools existed as

training grounds to develop and flourish.

“I’ve swam since I was 3 years old, and the neighborhood that my

parents picked out had a community swim team,” said Stephanie Gabert,

who just completed her freshman year at Corona del Mar High School.

“Ever since then I have loved the water.”

Gabert lost out on an Olympic birth by placing 29th in the

200-meter breast stroke at the Olympic Trials. But her words to a

Pilot reporter were no less powerful. And we can expect to hear more

of them as she only gets better and faster.

So as these sojourners, with tremendous talent in their bodies and

minds, move on to Athens for the games in August, we hope for their

safety in a turbulent world, and we are comforted by their

competitive spirit, which will help bring that world together in what

we hope is some semblance of peace.