EDITORIAL

We wish Aaron Peirsol good speed.

The Newport Harbor High School junior will begin his quest today to

make the U.S. Olympic Swim Team when the starter’s gun goes off in the

preliminaries of the 100-meter backstroke.

Peirsol, 17, is expected to qualify for the finals Friday, but he then

may run into some rough water. The 100-meter race -- a sprint that favors

muscle over endurance -- isn’t his best event. But at the Olympic trials,

anything can happen.

His best chance of making the 2000 Summer Games comes in the 200-meter

backstroke, a grueling event in which he’s ranked second in the world.

His main rival is American backstroker Lenny Krayzelburg, who was

unbeaten at 200 meters for four years until Peirsol upset him last month.

And so a true rivalry has begun. Not just for who will make the U.S.

Olympic team, but for winning a gold medal in Sydney, Australia, in

September.

It’s nice to see a local athlete make good in the Olympics, though

hardly an unusual sight. We’ve had plenty of them over the years --

including kayaker Sheila Conover, long-jumper Kim Attlesey, rower Brad

Lewis, shotputter Bonnie Dasse, swimmers Toni Hewitt, Kurt Krumpholtz and

John Moffet; tennis player Lindsay Davenport, volleyball player Steve

Timmons, and water polo team members Jamie Bergeson, Jim Kruse, Eric

Lindroth, Chris Oeding and Kevin Robertson.

And beach volleyball player Misty May and weightlifter Kara Heads will

compete Down Under this year.

And with any luck, so will Peirsol.

If you want to follow his races on television, forget about it. The

swimming trials won’t be shown until a week or so later on tape delay.

The best bets for results are logging on to the Internet at o7

www.usswim.comf7 and, of course, reading the Daily Pilot the next day.

Good luck, Aaron.