Ilinois' Magnuson, a late bloomer, is making waves in the pool

BEIJING -- Christine Magnuson was tall and strong, an impressive volleyball player in junior high school. So the volleyball coach at Andrew High School couldn't wait to have Magnuson on the team.

The coach didn't take it too well when Magnuson said she was giving up volleyball to concentrate on swimming.

''What kind of future do you have in swimming?" she remembers the coach asking, in a vain attempt to dissuade her.

Truth be told, Magnuson was asking herself the same thing as recently as last fall, before she began her final season at Tennessee.

''I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my swimming career after this year," Magnuson said. "Now I'm going to continue at least another year, maybe two, maybe more."

She was speaking via telephone from Singapore, where the U.S. Olympic swim team is training until it arrives in Beijing this week.

Magnuson, from Tinley Park, Ill., put the 2008 Summer Games into her future by winning 100-meter butterfly at the U.S. Olympic trials. Depending on her performance in the 100, she also could swim the butterfly leg on the medley relay.

Two years ago, she ranked 73rd in the world and 17th in the United States in the event. Although she moved up to 12th globally and third domestically in 2007, few would have predicted Magnuson as the trials' winner.

''I knew I could definitely be in the top two (to make the team)," Magnuson said. "You have to have some belief in yourself."

That belief began to crystallize in the last few months, after she won the NCAA title in the 100 butterfly.

''That gave Christine a much clearer view of what she was capable of," said Matt Kredich, her coach at Tennessee.

It makes sense that Magnuson, 22, is a late bloomer. In a sport where most champions begin training year-round as soon as they discard water wings, she had been only a part-time swimmer until college.

Magnuson would train for a three-month high school season, take a month off, then play water polo. Imagine her shock when Kredich told her that college workouts could include 10,000 yards of swimming in a single session.

''She sat there and bristled for a while," Kredich recalled, "but what has made her stand out is her consistent attitude about working hard in practice every day."

Magnuson did not begin seriously training and swimming in the long-course format (50-meter pools) used for international championships until after her sophomore year at Tennessee. She also began to focus on butterfly as much as freestyle.

Immediately, she was not just another butterflyer, although at first that had more to do with her unusual technique than her times.

Magnuson is a "side breather," meaning she turns her head to breathe in the butterfly, just as everyone does in the freestyle, where a head turn is natural because of the alternating arm movements. To do it in the butterfly requires an extremely flexible neck.

Kredich said she was the only Olympic trials finalist using the technique.

''Side breathing has really helped Christine finish a race," Magnuson said. "It keeps her more horizontal in the water, especially coming off the turn, at a time when other swimmers who are tired find it hard to lift their head to breathe.

''Those Australian girls may be faster at 50 meters, but in the last 25 meters Christine can get them with her technique and competitiveness."

Magnuson (57.5 from the Olympic trials semifinals) is third to Aussies Lisbeth Lenton-Trickett (56.81) and Jessica Schipper (57.31) in this year's world rankings. Magnuson won the trials' final in a less remarkable 58.11, rallying from third after 50 meters.

''Her swims at trials were good but not great," Kredich said. "I believe she will swim faster at the Olympic Games.

''I have been telling Christine she has a chance to do stuff no one has ever done_like be the first under 56 seconds in the 100 butterfly_and that idea has just started to sink in with her. Plus, her freestyle is going to get a lot better."

Her trials performance nevertheless was impressive, especially since the meet was by far the highest-level competition of Magnuson's career.

Magnuson was so excited about having made the 100 butterfly final that she forgot the accreditation card still was hanging around her neck as she got ready for a practice swim. It hit her in the nose as she bent over the blocks to dive in.

''That kind of lightened her up," Kredich said.

Ironically, such embarrassing moments usually occur when Magnuson tries to lighten up her teammates.

''She will tell a joke, and there will be this silence, and her teammates will say, 'That's awkward,' " Kredich said.

Awkward is now her nickname.