Making Themselves at Home

Amanda Beard slipped quietly back to Tucson.

Aaron Peirsol, Gabrielle Rose, Jason Lezak and Staciana Stitts received a hero’s welcome at John Wayne Airport.

Chad Carvin finally came home, after lingering at the U.S. Olympic swim trials as long as possible.

After nearly two weeks of intense competition in Indianapolis, members of U.S. team returned to neutral corners. They will have two days to revel in making the team. Then they converge on Pasadena, where the team will train until leaving for Australia and the 2000 Olympics.

Five Orange County swimmers--Beard (Irvine High graduate), Peirsol (Newport Harbor High), Lezak (Irvine High graduate), Carvin (Laguna Hills High graduate) and Kaitlin Sandeno (El Toro High)--qualified for a trip to Sydney next month. Two others who train with the Irvine Novaquatics, Stitts and Rose, also are on the Olympic team.

Sandeno was the county’s biggest winner; she will swim in three individual events, the 400 individual medley, 200 butterfly and 800 freestyle. Only 33-year-old Dara Torres qualified for more, reaching her fourth Olympics in the 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly, 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle.

Torres, who attended Stanford, trained two years with the Mission Viejo Nadadores in the 1980s.

But Carvin may have have gained the most. His tearful reaction to finishing second in the 400 freestyle on the first day of the trials was understandable.

In 1995, he was one of the top freestyle swimmers in the world. But after a series of poor performances, a despondent Carvin attempted suicide by swallowing sleeping pills. While in the hospital, Carvin learned he had a heart condition.

“I was able to come around and watch the Olympics,” Carvin said after qualifying for the trials. “I’d been through therapy and dealt with emotional feelings. I knew a lot of the national team members. I enjoyed watching them chase their dreams.”

Now he has caught his. Carvin, who also battled back from a 1997 back injury, also qualified for the Olympics in the 800 freestyle relay.

Carvin was finished with his competition on Friday, but remained at the trials until the last day.

“They bring out the Olympic team members, the ones who stay, in their uniforms after the last event,” said Judie Carvin, Chad’s mother. “I wanted to see Chad in his uniform. I wanted to see the balloons and the fireworks. So I asked him to stay until the end and he did.”

Beard, too, was written off after being a 14-year-old sensation in Atlanta four years ago. Beard returned to Tucson, where she attends the University of Arizona and trains with Hillenbrand Aquatics. She surprised many by finishing second in the 200 breaststroke to qualify for the Olympics. She won one gold and two silver medals in 1996, but her times increased drastically when she grew from a 5-foot-2 freshman at Irvine High School to a 5-8 senior.

Beard finished eighth in the 100 breaststroke at the trials, but rebounded in the 200.

“This is all I hoped for and more,” Beard said. “It hasn’t sunk in yet. It probably won’t for a couple years. It took a while in 1996 for everything to set in.”

Beard is a former Novaquatics swimmer. The club placed four of its current swimmers on the team: Peirsol, Stitts, Rose and Lezak. A large group of Novaquatics swimmers and parents greeted the four swimmers when they arrived in Orange County.

“That was definitely unexpected, to say the least,” the 17-year-old Peirsol said. “I never even thought about coming home as being a huge thing. Gabby was the first one off the plane and I heard all this noise. The turnout was amazing, with balloons and flowers.”

Peirsol, who qualified in the 200 backstroke, is one of nine teenagers who will swim for the men’s team.

Rose, who swam for Brazil in 1996, had retired from swimming, but returned in May and made rapid progress. Rose, who attended Stanford, finished second in the 200 individual medley.

Stitts also picked up speed since coming to the Novaquatics three years ago. Still, she had never won an individual event in international competition until finishing first in the 100 breaststroke at the Pan American Games in 1999. She finished second in the 100 freestyle at the trials.

Lezak, a UC Santa Barbara graduate, qualified for the 400 freestyle relay team.

All four were met at John Wayne Airport by family and friends.

“Our goal for the last four years was to qualify four swimmers,” said Novaquatics Coach Dave Salo, who was selected to be an assistant coach for the Olympic team. “We reached our goal. That’s not too bad.”

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O.C. Swimmers in the Olympics

Kaitlin Sandeno, El Toro High School, Nellie Gail Gators Swim Club. Events: 400 individual medley, 800 freestyle, 200 butterfly.

Chad Carvin, Laguna Hills High School, Arizona, Mission Viejo Nadadores. Events: 400 freestyle, 800 freestyle relay.

Gabrielle Rose, Stanford, Irvine Novaquatics. Event: 200 individual medley.

Amanda Beard, Irvine High School, Arizona, Hillenbrand Aquatics. Event: 200 breaststroke.

Jason Lezak, Irvine High School, UC Santa Barbara, Irvine Novaquatics. Event: 400 freestyle relay.

Staciana Stitts, Carlsbad High School, California, Irvine Novaquatics. Event: 100 breaststroke.

Aaron Peirsol, Newport Harbor High School, Irvine Novaquatics. Event: 200 backstroke.