USOC: no for 2022, go (maybe) for 2024 or 2026

Earlier this year, the U.S. and International Olympic Committees resolved a longstanding dispute over certain broadcasting and marketing revenue shares. That almost immediately prompted speculation that the USOC would get back into the Olympic bid game. Cities across the American West -- Salt Lake City, Denver, Reno and Bozeman, Mont. -- expressed interest in playing host to the 2022 Winter Games. The IOC will select the 2022 site in 2015; a bid for a 2015 Games would be due in the fall of 2013.

The USOC board of directors on Tuesday, however, opted to slow things down, and in a big way, and in so doing it made not only the logical call but the absolute right call.

The board decided not to bid for 2022 but instead to explore the possibility of hosting either the 2024 Summer or 2026 Winter Games.

Translation: It opted to do the right thing, not the fast thing. There's no rush. So why rush?

The smart money here -- there are literally dozens of variables -- is that the working committee the board appointed Tuesday comes back with a push for 2024. The committee is due to make an initial report to the full USOC board in December.

Why Summer? The Winter Games are great but the Summer Games are always going to be the franchise, and the United States can win for 2024.

The IOC will select the Summer Games site in 2017. That's so far out the IOC doesn't even know now where it's going to be meeting in 2017 to be picking the 2024 city.

San Francisco and New York figure to top the list of candidate cities. Chicago will be mentioned again. Dallas is interested, too, but a June Games, which is what they're tentatively talking about down there, would seem to fall outside the IOC window.

San Francisco is a magical name to the Eurocentric IOC.

New York has the advantage of having run a 2005 bid for 2012.

Meanwhile, there doubtlessly will be talk about how South Africa will want to mount a bid for 2024. But that country has a long, long way to go, and all the IOC members who were there for the 2011 session in Durban know that to be the case. And, like those of us in the press, they remember well the warnings not to walk outside the perimeter of the guarded IOC hotel -- even in broad daylight -- for fear of violence.

Paris will be mentioned, too. Sure, 2024 will be the 100th anniversary of Paris' 1924 Games. Big deal. How'd that anniversary work out for Athens in 1896? They held the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

Beyond which, the French are in considerably the same place the Americans were several years ago -- trying to figure out, in the wake of the disastrous single-digit vote for Annecy's 2018 Winter Games campaign, why they keep losing cycle after cycle at the Olympic bid game.

The Americans have now figured it out. It's a relationship business.

And it takes time to build relationships.

That's why Tuesday's decision makes so much sense.

USOC board chairman Larry Probst and chief executive Scott Blackmun have been traveling the world since the start of 2010, working at the relationship thing. Since the United States is not in the bid game, there's no pressure to ask for anything. They are simply trying to be good members of the so-called Olympic family.

The decision Tuesday gives them ample time to keep being just that.

It also allows time, too, for Probst to become an IOC member. That would be enormously helpful for an American bid.

There are other dominoes that need to fall into place. Domestically, for instance, more study needs to be done on the issue of the financial guarantee the IOC demands of host cities. In other countries, the federal government steps up for that guarantee; the nature of American federalism -- a city bids, supported by state and federal governments -- renders that super-complex.

Also, there are political matters at issue. To be candid, the next U.S. Olympic bid has to wait for a new president in the White House.

That didn't come up at Tuesday's USOC meeting. But it's very much the case.

President Obama traveled to Copenhagen in October, 2009, to push for his hometown, Chicago. He was the very first American president to put not only his personal prestige but that of the office on the line before the IOC.

The IOC then sent Chicago packing in the first round with a mere 18 votes.

There simply is no way the USOC can, or would, ask President Obama to appeal again to the IOC.

If he is re-elected -- of course that's a big if -- President Obama's term would end in January, 2017. The IOC vote for 2024 will come later that year.

Another thought:

It will be eight years between the Chicago vote and the 2024 vote; that's a lot of time and distance for feelings to be soothed.

A President Romney would, of course, change the equation considerably. Mitt Romney ran the Salt Lake 2002 organizing committee and he would be welcomed, indeed, at the IOC -- whether lobbying for a Winter or Summer Games.

But not for the notion of déjà vu all over again in Salt Lake City. Amid all the uncertainties ahead, one thing remains a solid bet:

The IOC is not going back to Salt Lake, not after the scandal that shook it in the late 1990s. Not in 2026. No way, no how.

Dara Torres comes up just shy

OMAHA -- Two years ago, Dara Torres' coach, Michael Lohberg, who was dying of a rare blood disorder, said to her, "Let's go for this." They both understood. She should try to make the U.S. Olympic team for the London Games.

By 2012, Dara would be 45.

Nutty. She had made the team in 2008, even won three medals, all silver, running her overall medal count to 12, tying an American record. But at 45? With a balky left knee?

On Monday night in Omaha, Dara Torres came this close. She is possessed of not just great talent but will and soul. At 45, she finished fourth in the 50 freestyle, missing out on a spot on the 2012 U.S. Olympic team by nine-hundredths of a second.

Jessica Hardy, 25 years old, won the race in 24.50 seconds. Kara Lynn Joyce, 26, finished second, in 24.73; she had finished fourth in the 50 at the 2008 Trials, and immediately after the race cried what she said were tears of "shock and joy, yes, and a lot of happiness."

Christine Magnuson, 26, took third, in 24.78.

Torres came in fourth, in 24.82.

"It's OK," she said moments afterward, holding her six-year-old daughter, Tessa. "I'm used to winning,. That wasn't the goal here. The goal was to try to make it.

"I didn't quite do it."

Hardy, who also won the 100 free here, said of Torres, "I love racing Dara. I wish the best for her. I wish she could have made it here. Swimming with her the past couple years has really been an awesome treat, for sure."

That has been a widespread sentiment around these Trials.

Madison Kennedy, 24 years old, who finished fifth in the 50 final in 25.1, had said beforehand, "I remember she came and did a clinic in, like -- in Connecticut -- Dara came to a clinic when I was way younger, 13, 11, maybe, and I was like, oh, my God, I got to hold her medal! It was so cool.

"She was on a tour. I just thought it was so amazing. It's so weird that I'm swimming against her now. Like, you know, when people have idols and then they come full circle and they meet them? That's what's happening."

This time around, age was both Dara's ally and ferocious enemy.

She trained smarter. At the same time, she said, "It's much tougher this time around," meaning than four years ago. "People were saying I was middle-aged when I was 41. But I'm really middle-aged now."

The hard part, she said, was recovering after races. There was also so much recovery she could do -- only so much she could put her body through.

In the first round here, she qualified fifth, in 25-flat.

In the semifinals, she came back with a 24.8, third-fastest.

In the final, she just came up less than a tenth of a second short. As Magnuson said, "That's the 50 for you."

The curious thing is Torres swam faster here than she did in winning the 50 at the Trials 12 years ago.

"I look back and in 2000," she said, "I went 24.9 to qualify," which is dead-on right. "So being 45, 12 years later, you've got to look at it realistically. As much as I wanted to win and wanted to make the team, I mean, that's pretty good for a 45-year-old."

She also said that this is, indeed, it. She said she is done trying to make the U.S. Olympic team. No Rio 2016.

She said she is going to "enjoy some time with my daughter, have a nice summer, cheer on the U.S. team from afar."

One more thing. Michael Lohberg died in April, 2011. She said, "I really wanted to finish the story that I started with him," adding a moment later, "I know he would be proud."

He would.

Michael Phelps goes for ... seven

OMAHA -- Eleven years ago, the incomparable Ian Thorpe turned in a swim of refined beauty in the 200 meter freestyle. It was at the 2001 world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, and he swam it in 1 minute, 44.06 seconds, a world record. It took another magnificent swim for that record to fall. Michael Phelps went 1:43.86 at the 2007 world championships in Melbourne, Australia, a swim that happened in the dead of night back home in the United States.

Most Americans never really saw what Michael Phelps could do in the 200 free until the Beijing Olympics, when he went 1:42.96. There, they saw the power, the grace, the aesthetic beauty of the way he drove through the water in the simplest, most elegant stroke known to humankind.

In announcing Monday that he would not defend his Olympic 200 free title in London, Phelps and his longtime coach, Bob Bowman, are assuredly making the shrewd, tactical move.

Even so, a pause before we get there to appreciate Phelps and his place in the 200 free. In 2004, for instance, at the Athens Games, he stepped in against Thorpe and Holland's Pieter van den Hoogenband. Thorpe won, in Olympic-record time, van den Hoogenband coming in second. Phelps took third, in a then-American record 1:45.32. And he was criticized -- by some, who didn't understand -- for "only" winning bronze.

Over the years, there have been so many dozens of Phelps 200s. Some have been truly remarkable; some, naturally, less so. When he is on, there is a glide and a seemingly effortless elegance to his stroke. Even though he had just come down from six weeks at altitude in Colorado Springs, this week you could sense the glide starting to emerge, and for that reason it's melancholy to think he won't be swimming the 200 in London.

That said, logic dictates any number of reasons why he shouldn't.

It frees him up for other races. They will include both the 100 and 200 butterflys; the 200 and 400 IMs; and all three relays, and in particular the 400 free relay.

No male swimmer has ever pulled the individual three-peat -- that is, won the same event in three straight Olympics.

Meanwhile, the 400 free relay is a key marker for the U.S. team. Schedule-wise, moreover, the relay final comes on the same day as the preliminaries and semifinals of the 200 freestyle. The heats and semis of the 200 fly come the very next day, as does the final of the 200 free.

"That's a tough program Michael swims," Gregg Troy, who will serve as the U.S. men's national coach in London, said at a news conference here Monday. "It's really tough. He's a little bit older" -- Phelps turned 27 on Saturday -- "and those older guys don't recover quite as quickly, and it's hard to do."

It takes the burden off another eight-event program; including relays, Phelps will likely swim seven in London. Now he won't have to answer any questions -- not even one -- about eight events.

`It's so much smarter for me to do that,'' Phelps told the Associated Press. ``We're not trying to recreate what happened in Beijing. It just makes sense.''

Bowman told reporters Monday, "Yes, we won't hear the number eight again after this press conference. As Michael said all along, it wasn't going to be eight. He has said that for the last four years."

Moreover, and not incidentally, it means that the last 200 free he ever swims against Ryan Lochte is, for the history books, a win for Phelps, here in Omaha at the U.S. Trials, by five-hundredths of a second.

In London, Phelps and Lochte will swim head-to-head only in the 200 and 400 IMs.

You can believe that Phelps and Bowman have made four swimmers really, really happy:

-- Ricky Berens, who now gets to swim in the 200 free. He had finished third, behind Phelps and Lochte.

-- Davis Tarwater, who now gets added to the U.S. team. He had been seventh in the 200 free final.

-- Park Tae-Hwan of South Korea. Lochte, who won the 200 free at the 2011 worlds in Shanghai, is the gold medal favorite. But Park, who in Beijing won silver in the 200 and gold in the 400, has to be thrilled Phelps won't be swimming.

-- Paul Biedermann of Germany. Biedermann now holds the world record in the 200, 1:42 flat, set in Rome at the 2009 world championships, during the crazy plastic-suit era. He hasn't come close to that time since swimmers have gone back to textile suits, and has freely admitted that the suits helped his times.

Biedermann finished fifth in Beijing in the 200 in 1:46. Now, with Phelps out of the picture, he must be thinking he might be able to medal.

Two nights ago, Phelps and Bowman were sitting at the dais, and Phelps, as the news conference drew to a close, was reflecting on the Trials while also looking forward to London. He said, "There are some things that I want to finish my career with" -- as usual, he didn't enumerate them -- "and I know they're going to be challenging, and Bob and I have a couple of weeks to try to perfect those."

And that, too, is why Phelps won't be swimming the 200 free.

Anthony Ervin's fantastic journey keeps on keeping on

OMAHA -- After one of the early rounds of the 50-meter freestyle here at the U.S. Trials, Anthony Ervin came out of the water and went over for one of those quicky interviews with NBC's Andrea Kremer. Everyone knows the deal. Except with Anthony Ervin, nothing is ever quite you expect. So, Anthony, Andrea asked, what does swimming mean to you now? Andrea, a pro's pro, knew full well that he was the 2000 Sydney Games gold medalist in the 50 free and had come back to the sport after a long break during which he'd done some other stuff, a lot of which was really interesting, some hugely introspective, huge chunks of which we may never know about. That's all part of being Anthony Ervin.

"I know you want a short and sexy answer for TV," he said with a big smile. "I'd have to write a book about that one. I've had such a journey. It has been circuitous. What was light was dark; what was dark was light. And the path was wonderful."

The shortest journey between two points in a 50-meter pool is a straight line, metaphysically speaking, and takes just over 21 seconds,. For Anthony Ervin, the path Sunday night led him back to the Olympic Games.

Before 12,406 roaring fans, Ervin, now 31, both arms covered in tattoo sleeves, his head adorned in a California Golden Bears yellow-and-blue swim cap, Anthony Ervin sprinted the 50 meters in 21.60 seconds, by far a personal best.

The resurgent Cullen Jones won the race in 21.59, just one-hundredth of a second faster, and when he finished Jones raised his right hand and then punched the water.

There was no such reaction from Anthony Ervin. That's because, in part, he needs glasses to see the scoreboard. He relied on Nathan Adrian, with whom he had been training at Berkeley, who finished third, in 21.68, to tell him what had happened.

Those times -- 21.59 and 21.60 -- were the second- and third-fastest in the world this year. Only Cesar Cielo of Brazil has gone faster, 21.38.

When swimmers come out of the water, they come off the deck and go underneath to what's called the "mixed zone," where they meet with reporters. Typically, the press officers of USA Swimming gently limit the racers to answers of a few seconds.

Anthony Ervin spoke for four minutes and 51 seconds in what was immediately agreed was a candidate for the best mixed-zone speech of all time, full of joy and gratitude for his friends -- they were in the stands wearing black and pink T-shirts that read, "Tony Ervin is Rock 'n Roll" -- and several coaches.

He said he had, at points along the way, been a "very fragile mentally person" who had been nurtured and developed, whose talents had been refined and allowed to blossom.

"Competition isn't meant to be easy," he said. "It's meant to be challenging."

Anthony Ervin won his gold medal in Sydney when he was 19. A few years later, he decided he'd had it with competitive swimming. He sold his 2000 gold medal for $17,101 and donated the money to relief efforts for the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia; he now says he was a "mystic" at the time.

He played in a band. He taught swimming to kids in New York City. He slept on his friend Elliot Ptasnik's couch. He earned got his college degree.

Two years ago, he moved out to the Bay Area. After the Cal men's team won its first NCAA title in March 2011, he decided he wanted back in to competitive swimming. He asked the Cal women's coach, Teri McKeever, if he could train with her team.

Earlier this week, he explained that there were no regrets about any of it. It his life hadn't followed  the straight and narrow -- you know, life isn't always like a swimmer in a pool looking down at that black line.

"How do you move forward with one’s life if you hold on to regret? If you turn around, you’d be like Lot’s wife. You’d just be a pillar of salt. What could have been? I don’t know. All I know is what did happen and I feel lucky and privileged and glad to be here right now."

Coming into the Trials, Anthony Ervin had come nowhere near his personal best in the 50, 21.8.

In the prelims, he went 21.83, fastest in the field.

Then, in the semifinals, 21.74, again fastest in the field.

Elliot Ptasnik, before the race, declared, "He'll make the Olympics. I have no doubt."

Swimming in Lane 4, Anthony Ervin went out and slammed that 21.6 to make the Olympics.

Asked what his expectations were for London, he said that of course he hoped to win a medal.

But there was a bigger picture, and understand the connotation here, because there's nothing sinister in his words, only the joy and gratitude of a 31-year-old man who has found profound beauty in testing himself, because in that test there is deep meaning in competition at the highest level: "I just want to keep the fun train chugging."

Happy 27th birthday, Michael Phelps

OMAHA -- It was Michael Phelps' 27th birthday Saturday, and then he went out and gave himself a big present, a victory in the 200-meter individual medley over Ryan Lochte in as thrilling and big-time a swim race as you could ever want to see. With fans waving red, white and blue signs wishing Michael a happy birthday, Phelps led wire-to-wire in winning in 1:54.84. Lochte touched just nine-hundredths of a second behind, 1:54.93.

"A win is a win," Phelps said, moments afterward, still breathing hard, adding, "It feels good to be back on that side.

"I'm sure that's not going to be the end of us going back-and-forth. So I'm just happy to have a good race like that. Kind of pulled it all together."

The victory reversed the order of last year's 1-2 at the world championships in Shanghai, when Lochte not only won but set a world record in the 200 IM, 1:54 flat. It sets the stage for London and the Olympics just weeks from now.

Moreover, the race came amid a fascinating day of maneuvering by Lochte, who opted Saturday night not only to swim the 200 IM but to sandwich that swim between the final of the 200 backstroke and the semifinal of 100 butterfly, all within about an hour.

Phelps did not swim the 200 back. But he has for years been the boss of the 100 fly, and Lochte traditionally does not swim that event at major events, making it all the more intriguing that he would want to test himself in it.

Phelps is the 2004 and 2008 Olympic 200 IM champion. But in recent years Lochte has been the king of the 200 medley. He won it at the 2009 Rome and 2011 Shanghai worlds.

Phelps showed up in Shanghai in so-so shape. Lochte not only beat Phelps in the 200 IM but in the 200 free. Phelps freely acknowledged afterward that if he wanted to win, he needed to put in the work.

This past March, Lochte had told ESPN The Magazine, "Once I was able to beat Michael, it gave me a motivation, an edge. I told myself, I can do this. Once I beat someone, they won't beat me again."

Umm, OK.

Here, these Trials kicked off with Lochte defeating Phelps in the 400 IM. That was Lochte's first-ever victory over Phelps.

Then, though, Phelps beat Lochte in the 200 free.

The mental what-do-you-have-for-me-now took an intriguing turn Saturday morning when "Ryan Lochte" turned up for real on the heat sheets of the 100 fly and, indeed, Ryan Lochte swam in the prelims.

Phelps, to no one's surprise, was the fastest qualifier, in 51.8. Lochte was sixth, in 52.21.

The 100 fly is a staple on the Phelps program. Phelps is the gold medalist in the 100 fly in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and the 2007 Melbourne, 2009 and 2011 world championships.

The 100 fly is typically not Lochte's event. Yet all of a sudden he was swimming it? Because -- why? The schedule was, in a word, compressed.

At 7:15 p.m Friday, Lochte swam in the 200 back finals. He touched first, in 1:54.54, with Tyler Clary second, 26-hundredths behind.

Lochte got out of the water, waved to the crowd and walked right off the pool deck.

At 7:45, 28 minutes later, he was back up top, for the 200 IM.

Phelps went out hard from the start, saying, "I had to."

He added, "I kind of used Ryan having the 200 back before to set the pace early. You know, I know the 200 back … is a very tough race. And I know it takes a lot out of your legs. I wanted to jump on it in the first 100 and see what happened.

"But I think our backstroke we kind of let off it a little bit and we were playing a cat-and-mouse game again. And then of course the last 50 we just went crazy."

The 200 IM ended at 7:47.

At 8, they held the 200 back medal ceremony.

At 8:12, Lochte was back on the blocks for his semifinal heat in the 100 fly. He finished third, in 52.47, enough for a spot in Sunday's final.

Phelps, in the other semifinal, finished first, in 51.35.

"Tonight," Lochte said, "was probably the most pain I have ever endured in a swimming competition.

"Going back-to-back-to-back was definitely hard. You know, I was up for the challenge. It is something I have been training for -- for the last four years. I knew I was able to do it. The 100 fly was just a different event, an event I have never done before."

And, he said, "Yes, I am swimming it [Sunday]," in the final.

With all these numbers, here's one more bit of math, and perhaps the explanation behind Lochte's Saturday's triple. For reasons yet unexplained, he scratched out of the 100 back at the Trials. That leaves the 100 fly if he wants to medal in five individual events at the Games -- the 100 fly plus both medleys, the 200 back and the 200 free. Throw in three relays -- that's a big if, by the way, that he would necessarily swim in all three -- and you get eight.

Eight is precisely how many events Phelps swam in Beijing, winning eight gold medals.

Eight is also precisely the number of events Phelps is now on course to swim in London -- assuming, of course, he finishes first or second in the 100 fly Sunday night.

"I actually never thought I would ever try it again," Phelps said late Saturday.

He also said, when asked about a "rivalry" with Lochte, "You guys are going to get the same answer you always get. Sorry. Neither of us wants to lose. When we get in the water, we race as hard as we can."

Phelps said he is concentrating now on "smaller things," slamming his feet over faster on his backstroke-to-breaststroke turn in the medley, keeping his hands together during his breaststroke legs, things like that.

His longtime coach, Bob Bowman, said a couple days ago, "He is finishing everything well but he's not particularly sharp. I like that," because there are still weeks to go before London, time to hone that sharpness.

Assuming Phelps wins the 100 fly final, Phelps and Lochte will leave Omaha knowing that Phelps won three of four head-to-head here.

At the same time, they both know as well that what happened at the Trials, when they write the history books, will mean -- well, very little.

With age comes wisdom, right? Michael Phelps, 27, said, looking ahead toward London, "The next race is the one that counts."

Swimming: culture matters

OMAHA -- Matt Grevers had just come off a dominating win in the 100 backstroke here at the U.S. swim Trials. It was late at night. He was walking across the bridge that connects CenturyLink Arena to the Hilton Omaha and he was walking slowly, very slowly, because about every 10 feet a gaggle of girls was asking for autographs and photos. He was signing and posing and he could not have been more gracious, even when the girls gave way to a grown man who asked if he would pose for a photo with a picture glued to a popsicle-stick of his hometown orthodontist, apparently a swim dad. Whatever.

Grevers posed for the photo and the guy gushed, "Matt, you just saved me two-thousand bucks!"

"It's a big family," Grevers would say later. "Everyone wants everyone to do well."

Every sport has its own culture. A reason, perhaps the key reason, for USA Swimming's ongoing success at the Summer Olympics -- and why the team that's being put together here at the Trials is expected to continue that run in just a few weeks in London -- is its underlying culture.

It's no accident. It starts early, when kids start at their clubs in their towns, and it carries all the way through and to the national and Olympic teams.

Just one example of swim culture, and how it contrasts with track and field, which of course will be one of the other marquee sports in just a few weeks at the Games:

In the women's 200-meter breaststroke heats here Friday morning, 14-year-old Allie Szekely and 20-year-old Gisselle Kohoyda tied for 17th in 2:30.28.

A marked element of swim culture is that swimmers are expected to be tough. About an hour later, after the heats of the men's 200 individual medley, they held a swim-off to determine who would be the first alternate for Friday night's semifinals in the women's 200 breaststroke; with the crowd roaring, Allie won, in 2:30.03.

To be clear: she went faster in the swim-off than she had in the heat itself.

Afterward, she signed autographs and said it was "awesome."

Compare: in track and field, the dead-heat in the women's 100 meters last Saturday in Eugene, Ore., is still a dead-heat.

The two athletes involved in the 100-meter tie at the track Trials, Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh, are also competing in the 200 meters. After competing through the early rounds of the 200, both have been escorted through what's called the "mixed zone," where athletes meet reporters, with no comment. Both have declined to speak with television crews as well.

The track dead-heat has dissolved into something of a farce. While the protocol that has since been instituted since the tie calls for either a run-off or a coin-flip, the coin-flip rules demand that the 25-cent piece to be used must feature George Washington on one side and an "Eagle" on the other. So the commemorative quarters honoring each of the 50 states, which are of course legal tender and now in wide circulation through a program launched by the U.S. Mint in 1999 -- they're no good.

Chuck Wielgus, executive director of USA Swimming, said he believes it's his No. 1 priority -- more than fund-raising, organizational charts, anything -- to work at culture.

On the blocks, swimming is the most important thing. Off -- no. It's understood that there's a distinct difference between who the person is as a swimmer and who he or she is as a person. Moreover, the culture in USA Swimming is to embrace accountability and responsibility and, whether winning or losing, to be humble and gracious.

No one is perfect, of course, and there are obviously exceptions and mistakes. But that's the culture.

"You can't manufacture it," Wielgus said. "It has to be ingrained."

He also said, "At the very end, it can be that extra little shot of energy, that extra hundredth of a second that can make a difference. This, all of it -- it's more than just about you."

It's all the more remarkable that it is ingrained because, obviously, swimming is an individual thing. But what USA Swimming has done is make it a team thing, too.

Swimming is hard. Not to say other sports aren't. But, as Eddie Reese, the longtime coach at the University of Texas, said, "Nobody in their right mind picks this. How exciting is it to do two to four hours a day following a black line at the bottom of a pool with no outside information or stimulus? Plus, the only way to get better is to work harder."

On top of which, as everyone in the sport's elite echelons understand well, the best way to produce

Olympic-caliber stars is to develop an aerobic base in a young athlete before he or she hits puberty -- the best example being Michael Phelps, who was essentially a miler as a youngster in Baltimore before he started sprinting.

The thing is, as young swimmers grow up in the sport, they are inevitably on clubs or teams. And there's a lot of waiting around together at meets for heats or finals. That builds camaraderie.

That group sense thoroughly informs the national and Olympic teams.

Call it corny but there are rookie skits and karaoke and team-building exercises that everyone buys into.

At the world championships last year in Shanghai, Frank Busch, the national team director, was a rookie. He had for the prior 22 years been the coach at the University of Arizona. But he was new to the national team post and therefore a rookie.

Culture is culture. At the pre-Shanghai training camp, he got up before the team and belted out his version of Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer." At the time, he was 60 years old and, as he said with a laugh, "They looked at me like I was from outer space."

Missy Franklin, the 17-year-old Colorado sensation who is expected to be a breakout star in London, not only sang, she danced so well that, Busch said, "The kids on the team, they were pulling their jaw off the ground watching her."

Because Franklin will be an Olympic rookie, she will have to do something all over again at the team's training camp before London. Culture is culture.

Besides the fun, there is a serious element to it as well, which everyone involved calls "the code." On international trips, there's a curfew, typically 10 or 11 p.m. No girls in boys' rooms or vice-versa. No tobacco or alcohol, not even for coaches when they are eating out.

"I have never been on a trip where there has been a problem," said Lindsay Mintenko, who swam at the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Games, winning three medals, two gold, and is now the U.S. national team managing director.

The way this also works is that the older athletes not only are expected to give back -- they want to do so.

Ariana Kukors, the 2009 world championship gold medalist in the women's 200 IM who qualified here to swim the event in London, said she vividly remembers Summer Sanders, who won four swimming medals, two gold, at the 1992 Barcelona Games, coming to a pool in the Seattle area -- where Kukors is from -- to sign autographs when Ariana was just 10.

"I never get tired of signing autographs," Kukors said.

Even the biggest names gladly pitch in.

In 2009, Phelps happened to be on vacation in Hawaii. The junior Pan Pacific championships were going on at the same time. Phelps called Jack Roach, the junior team national director, and said, what can I do?

Roach said, please come on over. Phelps did, and talked to the teens at length about the honor of representing team and country.

At those world championships in Rome in 2009, meanwhile, Aaron Peirsol, arguably the finest backstroker of his generation, didn't make the finals of the 100 back. He simply misjudged how fast he would have to go to make the last eight.

He didn't whine. He didn't complain. He said he would put it behind him, cheer for his teammates and get ready for his next race, the 200 back.

A few days later, right before he was getting ready to swim the 200 final, Peirsol turned to Roach, who on that trip was with the senior team.

"Jack, come here," Peirsol said. He urged Roach to take a look around at the magnificent setting that was the Foro Italico -- the olive trees, the red brick buildings, the noise and sound of 16,000 people.

"Let's not forget what we are doing," Peirsol said. "We may never experience this again as long as we live. Look at the sunset. Look at the trees. Look at the American flags. This is what it's all about.

"I knew right then," Roach said, "that Aaron was going to win a gold medal."

Which Peirsol did. In world-record time.

Setting the scene for the 400 free relay

OMAHA -- Garrett Weber-Gale was back in the pool Thursday, swimming rounds of the 100 meter freestyle. Cullen Jones, too. And, of course, Jason Lezak. Michael Phelps was at it, too, in the 200 fly, winning his signature event in 1:53.65.

It was all enough to evoke memories of that electric moment in Beijing in 2008, when those four guys, and especially Lezak, summoned one of the most incredible performances in Olympic history, winning the 400-meter freestyle relay.

The huge challenge now awaiting the 2012 U.S. team is to bring back relay gold again. It took a miracle four years ago. Bluntly, and everyone involved with the U.S. swim community knows so, even if they won't say so publicly, it may take more in London.

Why? Because the Australians have gotten that good. The French are good, too. The Italians, Russians and South Africans have gotten way better.

And the Americans, who have tradition and pride and history on their side, all of that -- it's not clear who the Americans are going to put into that relay beyond Phelps and the current No. 1 American sprinter, Nathan Adrian.

The prelims and the semis of the 100 free Thursday, of course, aren't the finals, which go down Friday. But rest assured that after reading the times the leading Americans posted Thursday the Aussies probably weren't breaking into a cold sweat.

Adrian led the semis with a 48.33. Jimmy Feigin was next in 48.48. Matt Grevers, who won the 100 back the night before, came third in 48.71.

Weber-Gale? Seventh, in 48.98. Jones? Eighth, in 49.03.

Lezak finished ninth, in 49.05. That left him out of Friday night's final -- for all of about a moment. Ryan Lochte, who had finished in a tie for fifth, with Scot Robison, told Lezak on his way off the pool deck that he would be scratching out of the final, to concentrate on his Friday night double, the 200 IM and the 200 back.

So Lezak lives to fight on, at least for one more day.

Grevers, meanwhile, also scratched out of the 100 final, again to concentrate on the 200 back. That  gave a spot in the 100 final to David Walters, who had finished 10th, in 49.34.

Again, the semi times are not likely to be the finals times. Even so, all involved well understand the complexity of the situation as it relates to the relay.

"We'll put together four good guys and hope for a Lezak-type swim," Bob Bowman, Phelps' coach, said with a smile.

The 2008 400 free relay was awesome and awe-inspiring and to watch it, no matter how many times you watch it, is an occasion for chills. Even if you're French.

To watch Lezak's anchor leg is to take in the power and potential of human will. Lezak swam 100 meters in an other-worldly 46.06 seconds, overtaking France's Alain Bernard at the very end, the Americans winning in world- and Olympic-record time, 3:08.24.

Phelps swam the lead-off leg on that relay. He won eight golds, of course, in Beijing. He went eight-for-eight in Beijing in measure because of Lezak.

If you want to know why, among other reasons, Phelps has consistently downplayed any eight-for-eight talk at the 2012 Olympics, it's best to understand how significantly the sprint scene has changed since four years ago in Beijing.

The Americans had won the 400 free relay at the 2005, 2007 and 2009 world championships -- Adrian bailing them out in Rome in 2009 with a stirring anchor leg -- and in Beijing in 2008.

Swimming can sometimes be an intensely technical sport. A breakdown here of the American Beijing relay splits:

Phelps swam his lead-off leg in 47.51 seconds. Weber-Gale followed in 47.02. Jones went next, in 47.65. Then Lezak, in 46.06.

At the 2011 world championships in Shanghai, the pre-race focus within the American camp was Eamon Sullivan, the Australian anchor. He had gone a then-world record 47.05 in Beijing, at the Games.

The Aussies' lead-off guy was James Magnussen. No one knew much about him except he was tall and 20 years old.

Everyone learned fast.

Magnussen went 47.49. Compare that to Phelps' Beijing lead-off leg.

Phelps, who was in decent but not tip-top shape in Shanghai, turned in an eminently solid 48.08. That put the Americans in second place.

The Americans never did lead in that race. In Shanghai, Weber-Gale swam second; Lezak, third; Adrian, anchor. The Americans dropped to third during the second leg; fourth with Lezak; Adrian pulled them back up to third at the finish.

Final standings: Australia, in 3:11 flat. France, 3:11:14. United States, 3:11.96.

Along with Magnussen, each of the four Aussies on that relay swam in the 47s: Matthew Targett, Matthew Abood, Sullivan.

The Austrialians are just flat-out loaded with sprinters. There's another Australian guy on the scene: James Roberts. At the Aussie Trials this past March, he swam a 47.63 in the 100.

Magnussen is a cool customer. Asked in Shanghai what it was like to swim against Phelps, he said, "No biggie."

Magnussen went on to become the first Australian in history win the open 100 at the worlds, going 47.63 in Shanghai.

Earlier this year, he swam a 47.10, fourth-fastest ever. The world record is 46.91, held by Brazil's Cesar Cielo. You can bet that Magnussen has his eyes on that record in London.

The French, meanwhile, have a young gun of their own, 20-year-old Yannick Agnel. In March, he swam a 48.02 open 100. Fabien Gilot typically anchors for the French; in Shanghai, he swam a 47.22 anchor leg.

Asked late Thursday how the U.S. team is likely to stack up against the world, Phelps said, "I mean, you can look at times but you'll never know until … we all get together. We look fairly decent; I think some of the things we'll probably have to work on and get ready for. I think the 400 free relay and the 400 medley relay are going to be very challenging events.

"But I think we'll be able to come together as a team. We always have. We have been able to do that very well, I guess, throughout my experience on the international level. I have no doubt we'll be able to come together and get behind one another and prepare ourselves the best we can to represent our country."

UPDATE, Friday 5 p.m. Central: USA Swimming, which on Thursday announced Grevers had scratched out of the 100 final, has posted a sign in the media workroom saying that's not so. He's in the final. Lochte is out. Grevers is in.

Natalie Coughlin still has ... hope

OMAHA -- Hope, they say in sports, is merely disappointment delayed. The great Natalie Coughlin now finds herself in the unusual position of hoping she makes the 2012 U.S. team that goes to London.

She is by no means a certainty, which seems almost incredulous, given that she has raced in 11 Olympic finals over the past two Games and won 11 Olympic medals. She needs one more medal to join Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres as the most decorated American female Olympic athletes in history.

But there it is.

Time has a way of doing this to everyone, even the great Natalie Coughlin. She is now 29, and finds herself trying to beat back teen-agers like Missy Franklin who saw Natalie Coughlin on their living-room television screens when they were little girls and dreamed of one day being just like her.

That day is this week, here, now, at the U.S. Trials. Except here is the difference: All these teens are not just younger. They are bigger and stronger than Natalie Coughlin.

In the women's 100-meter backstroke Wednesday night, Franklin, who is 17, touched first in 58.85, an American record. Rachel Bootsma, who is 18, came in second, in 59.49.

Coughlin finished third, in 1:00.06.

Of Coughlin's 11 Olympic medals, two are individual golds. Those two are in the 100 back.

The cruel fact of the Trials, of course, is that third doesn't get you onto the Olympic team.

Here is some basic math from the 100 back Tuesday night. Of the five others in the race besides Franklin, Bootsma and Coughlin, one was 21, another 22. The others: 18, 17, 16.

"… There is such a young heat and amazing heat, there are so many incredible backstrokers that will be in that final …," Franklin had said beforehand, adding, "So I'm excited to get out there and race and see what we can do."

Here is another set of facts, and it is revealing:

Franklin swam the 100 backstroke final, set that American record, qualified for her first U.S.  Olympic team, did all that -- roughly 20 minutes after swimming a semifinal heat of the 200 free.

Franklin is the next big thing in American swimming for a series of very good reasons. She is immensely talented, competitive, cheerful, the complete package. But it all starts with her considerable physical attributes. She stands 6-1. She has broad shoulders. She was built to swim, and she swims exceedingly well.

Coughlin is 5-8. Swimming is not basketball, of course, and it's not that giving away five inches means that Missy is going to dunk on Natalie. But the longer a swimmer is, the more stable he or she can be in the water -- like the keel on a sailboat.

Take a look at the best male swimmers. They're all tall:

Michael Phelps (6-4), who defeated Ryan Lochte (6-2), in the 200 freestyle final Tuesday night by five-hundredths of a second, a reversal of positions from last year's world championships in Shanghai.

Matt Grevers (6-8), who on Tuesday won the 100 back. He was the silver medalist in that event in Beijing.

And many, many more.

Enter Missy Franklin.

Everyone understands what's going on. But no one wants to say so directly. Especially Franklin, who genuinely -- and appropriately -- reveres Coughlin.

"I think it's impossible to take Natalie's spot," Franklin had said after the backstroke semifinals. "I mean, she's the best women's swimmer the sport has ever seen, and probably ever will, so she has done her job, and no one can ever really fill her spot."

Asked after the semis how she felt about her own self, Franklin said, "I love how I feel right now -- strong and powerful. It's so awesome to feel this way and to be able to come here and do what I came to do."

This is just how it is.

Coughlin had finished seventh Tuesday night in the 100 butterfly, a distant 2.16 seconds behind Dana Vollmer, who flirted with the world record before touching in 56.50. Claire Donahue took the second Olympic spot in 57.57.

Coughlin had been entered in the 200 individual medley but scratched out of it to focus on the 100 back.

Now she has only the 100 free left; prelims for that get underway Friday.

Asked if it entered her mind that she would likely have to displace Natalie Coughlin to make the U.S. Olympic team, Bootsma said, of course.

"She's Natalie Coughlin, right? The most amazing female swimmer, ever. It was unbelievable to be in the same heat with her. Making the team is a huge deal to me. I wish she could be there to kind of show everyone the ropes and stuff. But she'll make it in other events. And I'm looking forward to London."

Coughlin herself, gracious as ever after coming in third in Wednesday night's final, called Franklin and Bootsma "awesome, awesome girls."

She also said of her two Olympic golds, "I'm very proud of that." Even so, she said, "It's time for Missy and Bootsma."

Of these Trials, Coughlin said, "It's not exactly what I was hoping for, coming into this. I've done everything I could possibly do this year. My training has been, frankly, amazing. The races haven't been quite there. So I'm a little bummed but not nearly as much as everyone is expecting me to be. You know, you're walking around the pool deck and people are acting like you're dying or something."

The Trials are not over, certainly.

"I am praying and hoping for her because I would love to be on another team with her," Franklin said.

You never know about hope. Sometimes, in the end, champions have a funny way of making hope come alive.

"She is in a place she probably didn't anticipate. That's not a happy place," Frank Busch, the U.S. national team director said, quickly adding, "I certainly would not count Natalie out. Great champions can pull off great performances at any time: 'World -- watch this.' "

Janet Evans: no compromise, no limits, all courage

OMAHA -- Janet Evans came out of the water after swimming her preliminary heat in the 400 meters and said, with a big smile, albeit perhaps a little ruefully, "Janet just got 80th with a 4:21!" This was after the sixth heat of 12. Janet, who had just finished seventh in her bunch of nine, had no idea what place she would ultimately finish. All she knew at that instant was that she was for sure not going to make the U.S. Olympic Team in the 400 and yet the crowd was cheering for her like crazy.

It took about a half-hour for the six remaining heats to finish. When they were all done, Janet Evans, 40 years young, mother of two, an inspiration to swimmers, athletes of all sorts, moms, dads, everyone, had finished in exactly 80th place -- out of 113 -- with a time of 4:21.49.

Go figure.

If you were expecting Janet to make the U.S. team for the London 2012 Olympics, either in the 400 or in the 800, which she'll swim later in the week, you're likely to be disappointed.

The thing is, that's not her drop-dead expectation.

"I realized a long time ago I didn't think I was going to get to the Olympics," she said, relaxing after the 400 swim with a small group of reporters who have known her a long time.

This was always way more about the journey than the destination.

This from a woman who has five Olympic medals -- four gold and one silver, and is widely considered the greatest female long-distance swimmer of all time.

"The end goal was to be here," she said, meaning the Trials, adding a moment later, "That's the first time in my life, for me, I have ever been at that point. Because it has always been, like, you make it to the Trials, you make it to the Olympics, you win a gold medal, you take two weeks off and you start all over again. It was a very different concept …"

This was always about not accepting compromise or limits.

A year or so ago, Janet had a so-so swim at a meet. Her coach, Mark Schubert, asked if she wanted to keep going. The choice, he said, was all hers. She said, I am not a quitter.

Janet Evans' children are 5 and 2. That's a full-time job. She has another full-time job, as a motivational speaker. Swimming became a third full-time job.

Yet she said Tuesday, "I think for me the hardest part was finding the courage. Do you know what I mean?"

A moment or two later she explained: "I could have stayed home … the hardest part was the courage to actually put myself on the line and put myself in front of people that could criticize you if they wanted to, or not."

Some people, let's face it, will not -- and will never -- understand what Janet did here Tuesday. For them, it's make the Olympic team or bust.

She gets that.

"I think the people who get it will get it and the people who don't get it won't get it. Not everyone gets my silver medal from Barcelona," in 1992 in the 400, "which I think was one of my greatest victories, because it taught me so much, right?"

Allison Schmitt, who is coached by Bob Bowman -- Michael Phelps' coach, too -- finished first in Tuesday's prelims, in 4:05.60, almost 16 seconds faster than Janet's time.

"It is what it is," Janet said.

Later in the evening, Allison won the 400 final, in 4:02.84. Chloe Sutton took second, in 4:04.18.

Kylie Stewart raced in the same heat that Janet Evans did Tuesday morning. Kylie Stewart is 16. That's way closer in age to Janet's daughter, Syd, than to Janet. Janet laughed about that.

There was a lot of sweet, appreciative laughter from Janet here Tuesday.

She said, "I got a text from two of my best friends this morning. They're like, OK, I hope you go 4:02." Janet's best is 4:03.85, which she swam when was 17, at the Olympics in Seoul, in September, 1988. "I'm like, OK, are you kidding me? You're my best friends! Hello!"

Janet said she intended to re-group for the 800 prelims, on Saturday. Another friend e-mailed her husband, Billy Willson, to say, "Can Janet drop 25 seconds in her 800?" For the uninitiated, that's improbable if not impossible.

She laughed some more.

Janet said, "I'm certainly disappointed with my time. But I"m not going to let it taint the experience," adding, "I would love to have gone faster. But at the end of the day, is it defining?"

That's a rhetorical question, of course.

But here's the answer: Absolutely not.

Lochte beats Phelps in Trials 400 IM

OMAHA -- Ryan Lochte defeated Michael Phelps Monday night at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 400-meter individual medley. Afterward, Lochte hugged his mom and then posed with red, white and blue shoes with wings on them and eased into his role of All-American great guy. This marked the first time, ever, that Lochte had defeated Phelps in the 400 IM, and in the press room occasioned a predictable and immediate rush to judgment. The media loves horse races, and has put Lochte on the cover of magazines and featured him in television profiles and has all but anointed him The Man This Summer in London in the pool.

AP: "Ryan Lochte still has Michael Phelps' number," a reference to last summer's world championships in Shanghai, when Lochte was indisputably the better swimmer.

Reuters: "Ryan Lochte reaffirmed his status as the world's best all round swimmer when he beat Michael Phelps at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials …"

Lochte finished in 4:07.06, Phelps in 4:07.89. For sure, Lochte won, and decisively, pulling away in the third leg, the breaststroke, and swimming a strong fourth leg, the freestyle, for the victory.

Maybe Lochte will win again in London.

Then again, perhaps Phelps will.

Because what happened here Monday night has no bearing on what will happen in London.

None.

Lochte knows it.

Phelps knows it.

Everyone really inside the swim community knows it, too.

The only thing at stake here Monday night was making the U.S. Olympic team. That's it. Nothing more ought to be read into it.

Coming in, there seemed to be question in some quarters about whether Phelps would swim this event. He had publicly said many times that he might not.

The 400 IM is a particularly demanding swim. At the Olympics, it comes first -- as opposed to the world championships, when it comes last -- on the program.

The thing about Phelps not swimming it, however, is that Lochte is swimming it. And Phelps loves competition and challenge. So the smart money was always on him being in.

Here in Omaha, Phelps has just come off six weeks of altitude training in Colorado Springs. It needs to be understood that he is in shape -- unlike many of the years between Beijing and now -- but not refined shape.

Swimmers go through what's called a "taper," meaning a chance to let the blocks of endurance training they've done build in their bodies so that they can peak at a certain meet.

This year, that meet is, of course, the Olympics.

Not the Trials.

Phelps has always done his swims with the aim of reaching a particular time. He said afterward, "I said if I went 4:07, I'd be happy."

Phelps has five more weeks to get faster. He said -- though he finished second -- he was "very pleased."

Again, the point is to make the team. It's OK -- more than OK this time around for Phelps -- for the hottest glare of the spotlight to be on Lochte.

Lochte, meanwhile, has five more weeks to get faster, too. He said, "That time was not good at all. I feel like I'm capable of going way faster," adding a moment later, "Hopefully, that will change in a month."

At a news conference after Monday's racing was concluded, Lochte was asked what defeating Phelps for the first time in the 400 IM meant. His answer was revealing, because he understands full well what's going on.

"I mean," he said, "it doesn't really say much."