THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 5, 1996 TAG: 9603050304
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
At a time when all around us are busting capillaries over college basketball, Virginia Beach's Darby Chang has countered with a diversion that sounds pure and peaceful.
Chang has gone swimmin'.
It's not quite the casual dip off a white beach, though. When the steady beat of the pre-Olympics road splashes through Indianapolis starting Wednesday, Chang will compete in three events at the U.S. Swimming Trials.
They are the second Trials for Chang, who was a Cox High School junior when she swam the '92 Trials in the same pool. Back then, she didn't advance past the preliminaries in her lone event, the 100-meter butterfly.
Now a sophomore at the University of Texas, one of the country's finest women's teams, Chang has become a versatile competitor who will line up in three events at the Trials; the 100- and 200-meter backstroke and the 200-meter individual medley.
Only the top two finishers in each become Olympians, however. And despite the six All-America honors Chang earned last season, she faces rough waters, so to speak, in her effort to claim an elite spot.
U.S. Swimming's official Trials preview does not list Chang among the top contenders in any event. Some American record-holders and former Olympians, such as Summer Sanders and Whitney Hedgepeth, are in her way.
Chang knows most of her rivals, though. She's trained with Hedgepeth, a former Texas swimmer. And she's not about to show up just to take pictures.
``It's pretty much anyone's game out there,'' Chang said. ``Whoever's on their game, whoever wants it the most is who it's going to happen for.''
Still, it hasn't been a particularly terrific year for Chang, not as successful as her freshman season as a swimming Longhorn. For one, she had arthroscopic surgery last summer to ease, but not totally correct, a chronic knee problem.
Had it not been an Olympic year, Chang said she would have opted for more radical surgery, which would have required greater recovery time.
``I'm not back 100 percent from that,'' Chang said. ``I probably won't ever be back 100 percent. But that doesn't mean I can't give 100 percent in trying.''
Chang was fast enough earlier this season to qualify for the Trials, but she was unable to defend her titles in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke at the recent Southwest Conference meet, finishing third and fifth, respectively.
Not the momentum she'd like to take into Indianapolis, but hardly embarrassing results. Especially for a kid, 20 in April, already up to her ears as a biology major pointed toward a medical career.
``I feel overwhelmed a lot,'' Chang admitted. ``Usually, I sit down and talk to a coach or to people in the athletic department and they make me feel much better.''
Of course, nothing would lift Chang's spirits more than a big finish in Indy. The self-imposed pressure super achievers create can be daunting. But knowing she still has a future in the pool has softened Chang's perspective.
``If I don't make it this time, I still have the year 2000. I'll only be 24 when that rolls around,'' Chang said. ``I'd have to reconsider, though, whether I want to spend another four years training.''
Hey, after a dozen years of serious swimming, what's another four years of 6 a.m. workouts, weight-room work and shaving and tapering - all while keeping pace on an accelerating pre-med treadmill?
Chang is just more proof, isn't she? Proof that, like Fitzgerald's rich, prospective Olympians simply are different from you and me. ILLUSTRATION: Virginia Beach's Darby Chang will vie in 3 events at the U.S.
Swimming Trials, which begin Wednesday.
by CNB