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For swimmers, Olympics are the pinnacle

Most athletes have dreams.

Great young baseball players aspire to make the major leagues. College basketball stars who excel during March Madness and make Dick Vitale salivate can dream of earning riches in the NBA. The top gridiron players in the nation sprint for touchdowns and sack quarterbacks in hopes of maybe getting noticed by an NFL scout. Many of Red Berenson's troops on the hockey team would love nothing more than to play in the NHL one day.

Even people who play less marquee sports like tennis, golf, and track and field know that if they excel, they can attain glory -- not to mention financial security -- as a professional.

The goal of a prominent college swimmer is a lot less lucrative and a lot more focused.

More specifically, the motivation for years and years of grueling workouts will come to fruition for 25 men and 25 women in the next two weeks.

From March 6-12, the U.S. Olympic Trials will be held in Indianapolis. In each event, the top finishers will gain a trip to Atlanta for the right to live out their Olympic fantasy.

"Olympics is the ultimate in our sport," Michigan men's swimming coach Jon Urbanchek said. "Every living human being treats (the Olympics) as the pinnacle in our sport. It is literally embedded in you. It is an honor to represent your country. No other event can even come close to that."

Professional athletes long for that moment where they make the big play in the championship game before a national television audience. (Or less idealistically, the day when they sign a seven-year $52 million dollar contract with incentives thrown in.) Swimmers long for that surreal Olympic moment with the gold wrapped around their neck and the national anthem playing in the background.

Despite this obvious discrepancy between swimming and other sports, perhaps the biggest difference lies in the process which determines whether you "make it big" or not.

Top-flight college athletes in sports other than swimming are given the luxury of having an off game or a prolonged slump. For instance, two months after a certain Michigan basketball player called an ill-advised timeout that may have cost his team the 1993 national championship, he was picked first overall in the NBA Draft and signed a contract 10 times the size of most lottery jackpots.

Swimmers aren't afforded such a luxury. If they want to achieve their Olympic goal, they must be ready to go and in peak form come the moment of their trials race.

"(At the trials), it is No. 1 or No. 2," Urbanchek said in reference to the Olympic berths going only to the winner and runner-up in each event. "Every contender knows two years in advance what the day is. You have to be at the best on that day."

In a couple of weeks, the moment of truth will arrive for eight members of the Michigan men's swimming team.

Athletes like All-American Tom Dolan, who has been compared to 1972 Olympic hero Mark Spitz, will have his chance to live up to his reputation. He will be competing in the 400 individual medley, 400 freestyle, 200 IM and 200 backstroke at trials.

The other Wolverines seeking Olympic glory are Tom Malchow, Chris Rumley, Andy Potts, Jason Lancaster, John Reich, John Piersma and Toby Booker.

"Sure, you're nervous for the (trials)," Urbanchek said. "We think that every single one of our people is going to be in the run for it."

Let the games begin.