High Sierra Pools in Arlington County hires foreign students such as Simona Nekorancova of Slovakia to work at the pools it manages. New State Department rules limit such students to light, seasonal occupations. (Dayna Smith/Post)

Across the Washington area last week, young workers from Europe arrived in droves, heading for jobs at community swimming pools. Lugging duffel bags, they filled out forms, picked up safety gear and chatted in a variety of Slavic languages, eager to plunge into a summer experience of new friends, skills and culture.

“Now I can meet many people and see America,” gushed Anzhala Scherbina, 21, a petite student from Ukraine whose family spent $3,000 so she could fly here and enter a U.S.-sponsored work-travel program. “My parents say this will be a very good experience,” she said with a giggle.

The Obama administration is going to great lengths to make sure Scherbina and about 100,000 other foreign student workers are not disappointed. Last summer, the popular program, aimed at creating good will abroad, was rocked by scandal when students working at a candy warehouse in Pennsylvania staged a protest, complaining of isolation and overwork.

On May 11, the State Department issued rules that ban foreign students from jobs that could be harmful, limited them to light, seasonal occupations that are not likely to displace U.S. workers and required closer scrutiny of their conditions.

But the new rules do not address a broader, more profound question that some immigration and labor experts have raised about many sectors of the economy. Today, more than 50 ­million Americans of traditional working age are not employed, and yet a growing number of domestic jobs — from hotel clerks to nurses to computer scientists — are being performed by foreign-born workers.

For college-age Americans, there is a high rate of unemployment among those from poor families and fierce competition among middle-class students to build rsumsthat show responsibility. So why, critics wonder, are fewer young Americans snapping up relatively easy summer jobs? In other words, why is Scherbina here?

“The glory isn’t there any more. A lot of young Americans just don’t want to be lifeguards,” said Douglas Winkler, whose Hyattsville company manages 225 pools in residential complexes and hotels. When his father started the firm in the 1950s, all the guards were local kids. Today, one-third of Winkler’s seasonal staff of 650 pool workers are foreign students, mostly from Eastern Europe.

“The international students are really grateful to be here and have a job, while American students have so many other activities and demands on their time now,” he said. “I truly wish we didn’t have to rely so much on international labor, but the bottom line is that we don’t have any choice.”

At the much larger High Sierra Pools in Arlington County, managers hired about 600 Americans and 900 foreign students for the summer. One reason for the lopsided numbers, they said, is the United States’ longer academic years and sports programs that cut into the summer, leaving the company scrambling to fill shifts.

“We have to staff pools from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and the Americans can’t commit to the entire season,” said Radac Kaczor, a manager at High Sierra who is from Poland. “For us to replace them with international workers requires a lot of effort. We have to find them housing and make sure they have good English and swimming skills. If we could fill our staff with 100 percent Americans, we would.”

Continue reading…

]]> http://reachforthewall.com/2012/05/23/as-foreign-students-work-summer-jobs-what-about-americans/feed/ 1 http://reachforthewall.com/2012/05/22/ryan-lochte-on-the-cover-of-vogue/ http://reachforthewall.com/2012/05/22/ryan-lochte-on-the-cover-of-vogue/#comments Tue, 22 May 2012 21:45:14 +0000 Bryan Flaherty http://reachforthewall.com/?p=14787

Six-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte sports a pair of green Speedo sneakers during the medals ceremony after winning the men's 200m individual medley at 10th FINA world short-course swimming championships in Dubai on December 17, 2010. (Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images)

For the past two Olympics, superstar swimmer Ryan Lochte has played second fiddle to his USA teammate and rival, Michael Phelps. But after dominant performances last year at the FINA World Championships in Shanghai, Lochte has stepped out in a big way and not just in the swimming pool. Over the last year, he has been gaining admirers in the media and public at large, including corporations looking for the next great sports personality to endorse their brand.

(Photo credit Vogue)

Most recently Lochte landed on the cover of Vogue magazine, joining an elite cast as the fourth male to grace the cover of the fashion and lifestyle magazine and the first man to be shot without the company of a female model — Lochte is pictured with fellow Olympians Hope Solo and Serena Williams. The previous male covers featured Richard Gere, George Clooney, and LeBron James.

Shortly after his Vogue issue hit the stands, Lochte found himself in a Gillette commercial brandishing a razor that has been held by the likes of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer.

Some of his recent success beyond the pool can be attributed to his switch in representation from Octagon to image consultants Erika Wright and Shawn Zenga, who have embraced Lochte’s unique laid back personality, highlighted four years ago leading up to the Beijing Olympics in contrast to Phelps’s famous intensity.

This isn’t to say that Lochte isn’t driven, but today, with the help of Wright and Zenga, we see the Lochte who spends hours in the gym and swimming pool, as portrayed in his popular Gatorade commercials viewed here and here, and the Lochte who wears flashy green shoes on the podium at swim meets, a combination that seems to be taking him to some big places.

Olympic swimmer Dara Torres at the Coral Springs Aquatic Complex as she prepares for the upcoming Olympic trials in Omaha, Neb. (Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)

5-time Olympian, Dara Torres, turned 45-years-old last month. That hasn’t stopped her as she continues her unprecedented run at a sixth Olympics appearance, competing against swimmers more than half her age.

But unlike in 2000 and 2008, when she was already considered old by the sport’s standard, she is fighting an uphill battle against physiology.

Excerpt from Chapter 4: Age – Speed for the ages

Since before the 2008 Summer Games, she has employed two mashers, or stretchers, who have kneaded, walked on, massaged and rubbed her muscles three times weekly. She’s also worked with O’Brien, a personal trainer and former team trainer for the Florida Panthers.

After the Beijing Games, she began consulting with Bill Knowles, a rehabilitation specialist who has worked with Tiger Woods and other sports stars.

She considers O’Brien her upper-body trainer. Knowles is the lower-body guy. The two have brainstormed to develop odd-looking exercises designed to cater to more than her physique. They say they also want to work out her brain. They believe neurological stimulation will help elevate hormone production. For that reason, she does nothing as simple as a bicep curl; involved, complex exercises, they contend, keep the mind active.

Continue reading, here.

Graphic: Are you over the hill for Olympic sports?

Video: Postponing the inevitable

Gallery: No drag getting old

In Profiles in Speed, Amy Shipley examines what makes an athlete fast: Technology, Physiology, Strategy, Age, Psychology, and Chemistry. Each month she will feature an athlete preparing for the 2012 London Olympics. Check back in June as Shipley features 14-time Olympic gold medalist, Michael Phelps on what sets him apart from other elite athletes: mental toughness.

Previous Chapters from Profiles in Speed:

• Chapter 1: Sprinter Carmelita Jeter takes technology in stride
• Chapter 2: Swimmer Missy Franklin was built for speed
• Chapter 3: Runner Matt Centrowitz has learned that strategy and speed are intertwined

May. 14, 2012 – Michael Phelps was the star attraction at the United States Olympic Committee media summit Sunday in Dallas. Speaking at his lone media availability, the winner of 16 Olympic medals spoke of the goals he’s set for the London games and the challenges he will face. (AP)

Switching to a regular racing suit for the first time in three days of competition, Lochte salvaged an otherwise underwhelming weekend performance by winning the 200 IM and setting a new meet record at the Charlotte Grand Prix on Sunday.

Ryan Lochte reacts to winning the men's 200m IM final during the 2012 Charlotte UltraSwim Grand Prix at Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center on May 13, 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Lochte had failed to earn a medal in his other five events wearing a brief, but closed strong by beating Conor Dwyer and Eric Shanteau with a time of 1 minute, 57.63 seconds. It was a pleasing finish for Lochte, who failed to qualify for the finals of the 100-meter freestyle earlier in the day after placing 33rd in the preliminaries.

“It felt good to actually have a decent swim,” he said.

Lochte’s previous best finish of the weekend was sixth place in the 200 free. He was seventh in the 400 IM and eighth in the 100 backstroke. He failed to qualify for the main heat in the 50 backstroke and pulled out of the finals.

The world record holder in the 200 IM, Lochte began to pull away in the third leg of the race with a strong breaststroke. He was never challenged down the stretch beating Dwyer by nearly two seconds. Dwyer finished in 1:59.29 and Shanteau touched the wall in 2:00.46. Sebastian Rousseau finished a distant fourth.

Lochte said overall he was “disappointed” with his effort at the meet.

“I hate to lose,” Lochte said. “I like winning. I mean it didn’t happen but I had to keep reminding myself this isn’t the big picture. The big picture is the trials and Olympics. I just have to keep focused for that, keep moving forward. People won’t remember this meet. They’ll remember the trials and the Olympics. So even though I wanted to do well at this meet, it doesn’t affect me. I know that it will be there when the time is right.”

Lochte used this meet as a training tool.

He swam six races, four more than his main rival, Michael Phelps. He also wore a brief for his other races, but his coach Greg Troy recommended he switch to a regular suit for the 200 IM — perhaps in an effort to bolster his confidence.

“After my swims this weekend I think coach realized, you know what, you have to have a good one getting out of this meet,” Lochte said. “So I put the suit on and had a decent swim.”

While some swimmers are beginning to taper for the Olympic Trials in June, Lochte said he won’t begin that for another couple of weeks.

Lochte said he was pretty tired coming in and is even more exhausted leaving Charlotte.

He plans to return to Florida this week to continue training, knowing exactly where he needs to improve to capture gold in the London Games.

“I’m going to focus on speed, doing little things like my turns and my starts — just speed,” Lochte said. “Right now I have no speed. I have a lot of endurance and I have a good background right now in my training and it’s time to get ready.”

Phelps, the 14-time Olympic gold medalist, beat Lochte in both events they raced on Friday and Saturday. Phelps came in second in the 200 freestyle and 200 butterfly. He did not participate in any events Sunday.

Charlotte native Ricky Berens, who defeated Phelps and Lochte in the 200 freestyle Friday, captured his second gold medal of the meet Sunday by winning the 100 free in 49.07 seconds.

Although Berens said he felt “sloppy” in the race, he was ultimately pleased with his time, edging out Anthony Ervin (49.61) and Australian Matthew Targett (49.65) for the win while earning a measure of respect — as well as confidence — heading to Omaha next month for the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Berens feels his best is yet to come.

“I’m feeling very confident and this is a huge step in the road toward Omaha,” Berens said. “I’m swimming times that are the fastest I’ve swam in a long time and we’re nowhere near our taper, so to be putting up these times is exciting. I’m having fun and racing fast.”

In other men’s events, Ryan Murphy won the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:58.09 and Chad La Tourette captured the 1500 freestyle in a 15:06.73.

The featured women’s race was the 100-meter freestyle and it was an incredibly tight battle with Lia Neal edging Jessica Hardy by one one-hundredth of a second, finishing in 54.35. Natalie Coughlin, an 11-time Olympic medalist who hopes to become the most decorated female swimmer in history this summer at the London Games, finished third at 54.59.

Hardy finished the meet with four medals — two gold and two silver.

In the women’s 200 IM, Caitlin Leverenz defeated Ariana Kukors and established a new meet record with a time of 2:10.25, beating her time in the preliminaries by more than four seconds. Kukors finished in 2:11.09, while Elizabeth Pelton was third at 2:11.87.

Pelton rebounded to win the 200 backstroke in 2:09.41, edging out Stephanie Proud and Dominique Bouchard.

Fifteen-year-old Kathleen Ledecky won the 800 freestyle going away in a meet record time of 8:25.85, the fourth fastest time in the world this year. Ledecky pulled away early and was never challenged, beating Gillian Ryan (8:36.56) and Elizabeth Beisel (8:37.40) by more than 10 seconds.

Waterframe / Alamy/Alamy

Swim. The single, solitary, one-syllable word that which makes up the title of this wonderful book makes the author’s intention — and her passion — crystal clear. Swim, it reminds us.

But is the title of Lynn Sherr’s book a command, a suggestion, an exhortation? That one short word on the cover leaves us in no doubt as to the focus we’ll find on the pages within. This slim volume is not about water, nor about exercise. It is neither history lesson, nor social commentaryreview (although, in fact, it contains some of each is both and much more besides). It is a love-letter to swimming, one woman’s homageeulogy to the pastime thatwhich continues to capture the hearts of young and old.

Just as I do before Like that first delicious moment of slipping underthe water for a swim, I dipped into Sherr’s book with a shiver of anticipation. The book It opens with a vivid account of herthe author’s attempt to swim the √Hellespont, known today as theor √Dardanelles, theatwatery channel dividing Asia and Europe, famed as the straits stretch of water thatwhich tried (and failed) to keep apart the lovers √Hero and √Leander.

Immediately, the book reeleds me in. I wasam there with Sherr, submerged in seawater, chilled but fired-up, tranquil but energizsed. I, too, am a sea swimmer. I have swum across the English Channel twice. Sherr’s sensory recollection of what it is like to swim long distances in the sea resonated with me on a deep, almost metabolic level. I feltcan feel my skin prickling and my lungs expanding as I read. She describes the fears, the thrills and the peculiar freedom of swimming in a language that any swimmer will recognizse. Swimming, says Sherr, is “the chance to float free, as close to flying as I’ll ever get . . . a time of quiet contemplation. . . . The silence is stunning.” (√p5)If you’ve ever swum, you’ll know what she means.

And tThis book will enchant anyone who’s drawn to water, whether you swim once a week at the local pool or dedicate your life to briny challenges. Although it opens with a cliff-hanger account of Sherr’s Hellespont adventure, and then dives into the mythology and poetic history behind that swim, the book’s appeal lies in more than its vibrant descriptions of open-water swimming. From the Hellespont, Sherr takes us on a journey through the history of swimming, from ancient timeshistory to modern-day sport, via mythology and art. The book is a rich mine of research, beautifully illustrated with maps, texts and rare images of from a vast archive of swimming — from Egyptian hieroglyphs through Hollywood to the Olympic Games.

There are historical tales, of Benjamin Franklin inventing an early type of swimming hand-paddle, of the sport’sswimming’s first superstars, MatthewCaptain Webb, the first to swim the English Channel, and the speedy and graceful Esther Williams. Sherr explores the science thatwhich lies behind our love of water, describingdiscovering the health and vigorhow our bodies deriverespond fromto the act of swimming and asserting that this “upgrades swimming from a pleasant pastime to a medical must.” (√p47)The history and development of various the individual swimming strokes are is explored, illustrated by fascinating, funny images of technological contraptions of yesteryear. And the modern sport is examined, with interviews and insights from Olympians and coaches. Sherr invites us to explore it with her: the spaces in which we swim, the kit and clothing we wear, the extremes to which we take the sport.

She delivers it all in It’s beautiful prosely-written, of course: Sherr is an award-winning writer and broadcast journalist, a well-knownthe face onof ABC News for 30 years. This is Sherr in her element, eagerly sharing her life’s passion through an assiduous look at swimming and what it means. Perhaps the tiny swimmer breast-stroking over and over again at the foot of each page is Sherr herself. The little lady inches her way along, matching her swim stroke to our page turning until, there on page 187, she stretches out both arms as if reaching to touch the wall at the end of her final lap.

Swimmers, Sherr suggests, are a strange breed. Most at home in an alien environment, they recharge their batteries by spending time submerged in silence. Something unspoken unites the competitive pool-swimmer, the endurance open-water specialist and those who swim for leisure. It is this something (and everything) that she which Sherr searches for in “Swim.” It begins, says Sherr says, with “the lure, the hold, the timeless enchantment of being in the water.” (√p10)

Swimming is one of our oldest pastimes, one of our most crucial life-skills and ourmost popular sports. Many books exist about swimming technique, training, events and challenges. But “Swim” is the only book I’ve ever read thatwhich gathers together everything we love about swimming in one volume.

It’s all here. And its enticing blend of personality and passion will draw you in, just like an irresistible glimpse of a lake on a hot Ssummer’s day.

You’re a swimmer. You know what I mean.

bookworld@washpost.com

Nicola Joyce is a freelance journalist (and blogger.) who has swum the English Channel twice and around the channel island of Jersey once.[SHE ALREADY SAYS MOST OF THIS IS THE PIECE ITSELF/DD]

CHARLOTTE: Fans scream for Michael Phelps' attention as he makes his way to compete in the men's 200-meter butterfly finals. Phelps took second place in the event. (AP Photo/Bob Leverone)

CHARLOTTE — For Michael Phelps, it’s time to head to the mountains.

The 14-time Olympic gold medalist showed he still has some work to do before the London Games, settling for another runner-up finish at the Charlotte Grand Prix on Saturday. He was edged by China’s Wu Peng in the 200-meter butterfly, losing to the same swimmer who ended Phelps’ long winning streak in one of his signature events a year ago in Michigan.

Phelps doesn’t sound worried.

“Sure, I sure hate to lose,” he said. “But when it comes down to it, if I’m able to see where I’m at, see what I need to do and change, that’s all I really need to get out of it.”

Phelps was second all the way, trailing Wu at the first turn, then falling behind Sebastien Rousseau through the middle two laps of the race. Wu, who was fourth in the 200 fly at Beijing, showed an impressive finishing kick, passing Rousseau and Phelps to win in 1 minute, 56.69 seconds. Phelps was next at 1:56.87, while Rousseau slipped to third in 1:57.54.

“I know this is not the Olympic trials, this is not the Olympic Games,” Phelps said. “It’s a stepping stone heading in right direction for the end result. You’ve heard me say that so many times, but that’s the truth. These are little things along the way — I like to call them quizzes — to really see what I need to improve on.”

Phelps competed in only two races at Charlotte, also finishing second in the 200 freestyle. He will swim just one more meet, a minor event in Texas, before the U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha in late June.

For much of the next six weeks, he’ll be locked away in the mountains of Colorado, just Phelps and coach Bob Bowman, training in high altitude and fine-tuning his strokes without any unnecessary distractions.

“I hope I come out alive,” Phelps joked.

But he knows it’s the right thing to do, a necessary step to ensure his fourth — and what he insists will be his final — Olympics provides a fitting capper to his brilliant career. He still needs to make some subtle improvements in his technique, and his laser-like focus is not quite where it needs to be. For instance, he heard the crowd cheering him on in the race and had to remind himself not to go out faster than he wanted. Then, on the finishing lap, he got a bit out of whack and found himself counting strokes in his head “for some reason.”

“I’m within striking distance of where I need to be,” Phelps insisted. “That’s pretty much the reason why we decided to just go to Colorado Springs and stay there until the trials. We do get a lot of work done when we go there. I know that. It’s a tough place to be in and train in for six weeks. But at this point, that’s something I need and something I know that’s really going to help me. Bob and I talked about it and decided that’s the best decision for us to really have the best shot at being able to accomplish our goals. We’re literally locked away from everything and nobody can get to us. All we do is train, eat, sleep and swim. We do nothing else.”

Wu, who’s made the 200 fly finals at the last two Olympics but has yet to win a medal, knows that Phelps will be a lot tougher to beat in London than he was in Charlotte.

“I was satisfied with my performance,” he said. “I think Michael is not feeling good yet. I was just lucky.”

Wu is realistic about his own goals, knowing that he has the misfortune of excelling in an event that Phelps has won at the last two Olympics and will be heavily favored to take again at these games.

“If I just get any medal in London, I will be happy,” Wu said. “Everyone wants to beat Michael because Michael is the fastest swimmer in the world. But I really just want to be top three.”

CHARLOTTE: Michael Phelps prepares for the 200 meter freestyle swimming event in the 2012 Charlotte UltraSwim Grand Prix in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, May 11, 2012. (Photo by AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Michael Phelps easily beat Ryan Lochte in their last race before the U.S. Olympic trials.

Don’t read too much into the results.

Heck, Phelps didn’t win either.

Ricky Berens beat them both to the wall in the 200-meter freestyle at the Charlotte Grand Prix on Friday night, touching in a relatively slow time of 1 minute, 47.32 seconds. Phelps finished second in 1:48.01, while Lochte was far back in sixth place at 1:49.70.

“We’re all doing different training,” Phelps said. “That’s how (Lochte) has always done it. I’m sure that’s what he’s going to do this year. He’s somebody who’s a very tough racer and, at the right time, he’ll be there when it counts.”

Lochte, in fact, put himself at a disadvantage before the race even started by going with a brief instead of a jammer suit like the one worn by Phelps. Also, the Floridian is swimming a much more extensive program in Charlotte than his top rival, who has only one more event, the 200 butterfly, before he heads to the U.S. Olympic Committee media summit in Dallas.

Later in the evening, Lochte finished seventh in the grueling 400 individual medley. He’s got several more events in Charlotte before he shuts it down on Sunday, heading back to the sunshine state to get in some serious training before the trials in Omaha, which begin in late June.

“None of this is going to matter,” said Gregg Troy, Lochte’s coach. “No one is going to care what happened in Charlotte in another month and a half or two months. So, we’re pretty comfortable.”

Phelps is planning to swim at only one more meet before the Olympic trials. He’ll be spending most of his time in the mountains of Colorado, fine-tuning his conditioning at altitude.

Berens certainly knows that both Phelps and Lochte will be going much faster when they get to Omaha. At last year’s world championships, Lochte won the gold with a showing of 1:44.44, edging Phelps by 35-hundredths of a second.

Berens hasn’t come close to those sort of times without benefit of the rubberized suits that have since been banned by FINA, the world governing body. The best he can hope for, it would seem, is to go fast enough at trials to earn a spot on the 800 free relay.

“I have one of the hardest events in the country,” he conceded. “I’ve got Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps, who are the two fastest guys in the world and the toughest competition. As long as I’m on the relay with those two guys, I’ll be glad to be on their on their team. As long as I’m part of that relay and winning gold for the U.S., I’m happy.”

All eyes were on Phelps and Lochte as they headed to the blocks, with nearly everyone in the overflow crowd snapping pictures of them with cellphones and tablets. But Berens, a native of Charlotte, had plenty of supporters too.

His plan was to get off to a quick start and try to hold on. It worked out just fine.

Berens was about a half-body length ahead of Phelps at the first turn and never gave up the advantage. Phelps hoped to get a powerful finishing kick off his last turn, but he had trouble judging the wall because of a bulkhead that hangs over the end of the pool. He mistimed his flip, didn’t get the push he wanted and couldn’t quite catch up to the leader.

“I wanted to nail that third wall. I knew that was going to be the difference in the race,” Phelps said. “He probably got me by a couple of tenths on that wall. With 15 or 20 meters to go, I kind of felt like I was reeling him in a little bit. I just kind of ran out of room. I didn’t set myself up to run him down at the right spot. Hopefully, next time.”

Phelps wasn’t sure what to expect after a sluggish showing in the morning preliminaries, when he managed only the fifth-fastest time at 1:51.20.

“I felt awful,” Phelps said. “That was probably the worst I’ve felt racing in a while. But I just tried to come in, loosen up, warm up and get ready. I was a little more awake in the afternoon than I was this morning. I was able to get up and put a good effort in, get out there and race those guys.”

Berens figured it would be easier to hold off Phelps than it would be to catch him.

“Coming into this meet, I really wanted to try to do what I’m going to do at trials,” Berens said. “I knew I needed to get out faster and try to hit that first 100 a little better. I like being ahead.”

But he, too, knew not to put too much stock in winning a Grand Prix meet in May. That was apparent when Lochte stepped up to the blocks in a skimpy blue suit, like a swimmer out of the 1980s.

“At this point in the season, everybody is at a different part of their season,” Berens said. “Someone is a little more tired than the next person. Ryan Lochte is over there racing in just his brief, doing whatever he does. Everybody is in a different place. I’m just excited to be where I am.”

Some bellies hang over the swim suits and a woman keeps mumbling about getting water in her ear. These aren’t pros or even talented youngsters.

They are in their 20s and 30s and are so different from the solitary man in the fifth lane who has arrived carrying a black mesh bag that holds goggles, a pair of fins, a small parachute and a snorkel that looks like one your 10-year-old might take to the beach.

Jason Lezak looks back at the clock after he competes during the heats in the 100m freestyle at U.S. Nationals in August, 2010 (Alex Gallardo/Reuters)

Jason Lezak is 36 years old and already has four Olympic gold medals to his credit, including two won at the Beijing Games in 2008.

He is still freckled-faced and is the father of two, and he is a solitary trainer at this point in his life.

He sees no need to have a coach barking orders or split times or to give him a complicated year-long written plan.

After an hour’s workout on a weekday at the pool that is within five minutes of his Irvine home, Lezak said what he did, including using the fins and the snorkel, was part of a training plan that comes into his head as he stands on the deck on any particular morning.

“It’s what I need then,” Lezak said. “I have it all in my head now from all those years. Why should anyone else know better than me what I need? And why should I need anyone else to motivate me? At this point, if I can’t do it, I shouldn’t bother.”

Besides his Olympic hauls, Lezak also has four world championship gold medals as well as a silver and a bronze.

He was 32 and the oldest man on the U.S. swimming team in Beijing and will be 36 and most certainly the oldest man on the U.S. team in London should Lezak qualify for his fourth Olympics.

So, of course, there is the question.

Why?

The answer doesn’t come in words.

It comes from watching a decorated Olympian practice in anonymity. He takes a gulp from a white squeeze water bottle, does a couple of stretches and dives in. He does some slow freestyle laps, about 10, then the same number of butterfly laps, then he switches back to freestyle.

He wears goggles and he reaches into his bag for a small paddleboard and the flippers. He puts on the flippers and swims only on his right side, kicking then turning and keeping a leisurely pace. These seemingly insignificant movements help him with strength and balance, Lezak said.

After about 25 minutes, Lezak takes his snorkel. He’s still wearing the goggles and the fins. No stranger would walk up and say, “Hey, there’s an Olympic gold-medal swimmer.”

The snorkel, Lezak said, ensures a steady pace of breathing. The flippers keep him on the straight and narrow. “I’m old,” he said. “I can’t do all that pounding, all that mileage. I have figured out how to do the most in a short amount of time.”

He also packs a little parachute that he will attach to his legs to cause drag in the water. It is a way to do strength training, Lezak said.

Despite all his racing hardware, Lezak is most remembered for an Olympic moment that benefited the world’s most famous swimmer, Michael Phelps.

When Phelps was aiming for a record eight gold medals in Beijing, Lezak became a mini-star. It was Lezak who chased down France’s Alain Bernard in the final 20 meters of the 4×100 freestyle relay to help give the U.S., and Phelps, a gold.

That’s the kind of swimming Lezak churns up when he attaches that parachute to his feet and begins kicking. All of a sudden it’s as if a shark has emerged from the bottom of the pool causing a commotion with splashing and noise. There is method to this as well. “Sudden bursts,” Lezak said. “That’s what a sprinter does.”

Lezak has swum at this pool most of his life. It’s where he grew up. His life now is simple. “Weights in the morning,” he said. “Then the power from the gym, I apply to the pool. I do some resistance swimming, some speed work after that, take that power into real speed.

“As the body gets older, sometimes the mind wants to go hard for a lot longer. But I’ve learned over the course of the last several years how many laps is enough, how many is too much.”

Lezak, of course, has been coached. He worked with Dave Salo, who coaches a bunch of Olympic hopefuls at USC. But that kind of mass practice isn’t for Lezak anymore.

He is married to Danielle, who is a nurse and an ex-swimmer. He has a 2{-year-old son, Ryan, and Blake, a 6-month-old son. Both have arrived since the Beijing Games and maybe there were days or weeks when Lezak contemplated retirement but not seriously.

Still, Lezak admits he’s getting nervous as trials approach. “More than ever,” he says. “When I first started going to trials, I knew everything. And that was a bad thing because I’d be in the ready room, looking across and most of the names were of people with American records, national champions, gold medalists, and my self-confidence was great yet I didn’t know if I could beat any of them.

“Now I have the confidence. I’ve put in the work. I’ve beaten people I wasn’t supposed to beat. I started being able to go to races like I could win.”

Lezak says he will occasionally pop in a DVR of that Beijing relay where he helped Phelps.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s me, even after it happened and we won the gold medal,” he said. “I don’t think I realized the impact it made, how people perceived it back home. I started being invited on talk shows. People stopped me at airports. I had been an Olympian two times before but now I got noticed. That’s not my type of personality and I’ve had to adapt.”

Lezak has no desire to be a star. He doesn’t want to be Michael Phelps. He said his favorite race in Beijing wasn’t the relay he helped the U.S. win for Phelps but his individual bronze medal. “I had to dig deep for that. I was 32 years old and my body didn’t recover after the relay. I had to dig deep for that bronze.”

He is also at peace with however the U.S. Olympic trials go. “I’m confident,” he said. “I know I’ve done everything I was possibly meant to do to be the best,” he said. “I want very much to go to my fourth Olympic Games, but if it doesn’t work out, I’ve had a great career.”

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(c)2012 the Los Angeles Times

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In the interview, Phelps confirms the rumors that he will retire after this year’s Olympics, no matter the outcome, with a gleeful eye towards his post-swimming life, free of rigid, unyielding routine.

“Once I retire, I’m retiring,” he told Cooper. “I’m done.”

As such, London would be Phelps’s last chance at breaking Larisa Latynina’s Olympic medal record of 18 and extending his gold medal record even further. Phelps currently has 16 total Olympic medals, 14 of them gold.

Michael Phelps: After Beijing, I mean, there’s countless times where I’ve just wanted to be like, “I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to go to the pool every day.”

Anderson Cooper: So now is it, is it hard getting out of bed in the morning?

Michael Phelps: No, because one, we’re so close. And two, because I’m actually enjoying it. I’m swimming well again.

A somewhat surprising revelation during the interview, the decision for Phelps to come keep training for the 2012 Olympics wasn’t set in stone. In 2009, Phelps lacked motivation and the drive required of elite level swimmers that spend hours in the pool and weight room preparing.

“I thought it was a 50-50,” Phelps’s coach, Bob Bowman said. “I really didn’t have a feel for whether he would come back or not come back.”

But now, Phelps seems focused and determined, sleeping in an altitude sleeping chamber to simulate sleep at over 8,000 feet and a renewed focus on strength training.

Whereas Phelps appeared confident about his chances in London, Bowman was cautiously tight-lipped about his superstar’s prospects this July, saying that he can win multiple gold medals, but that is up to him.