The expectations for many Ohio State student athletes are to end their seasons at their respective NCAA championships. But two OSU women swimmers who are competing in foreign waters far from home will deal with the pressures of ending their seasons this year at the Olympic trials and the Olympic games.
“I think once you get to the Olympic trials, for me, it’s like the ultimate swim meet,” said junior swimmer Kylie Lancken. “It’s the hardest one out there pretty much. It’s often harder to qualify for your Olympic team than swim in the Olympics.”
Even though the trials and games are not until this summer, Australian swimmers and OSU teammates Lancken and freshman swimmer Rebekah Rychvalsky have been getting in their training through the dual-meet season with OSU this fall.
Rychvalsky finished with first places in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events in the dual meet against Michigan on Nov. 14, breaking a 9-year Larkins Hall/Peppe Aquatic Center record.
Rychvalsky, along with the other three international freshmen, is competing in the weekly dual meets for the first time and said the meets will benefit her.
“Back home I didn’t get much race practice, so the dual meets every weekend help a lot,” she said. “I need a lot of race practice to work on my actual rhythm and flip turns and all the mechanics of my race.”
This is Lancken’s third year competing in the dual-meet season. She has won four individual events in the past three meets this season.
Lancken and Rychvalsky got to know each other from swimming carnivals in Australia. Lancken of Pymble and Rychvalsky of Sydney, lived 15 minutes away from each other at home in Australia. Lancken provided much assistance for Rychvalsky to come to OSU.
OSU swimming coach Jeanne Fleck said her international swimmers benefit from the dual meets. She also said they come to swim at colleges in the United States because they do not get the weekly racing experience in their native countries.
“They get to do all that while they keep their training up,” Fleck said. “They’re not used to racing this much, so it helps when you get into the Olympic trials because you’re not scared to race.”
Swimmers need certain qualifying times in any long-course meet to be eligible for their country’s trials.
Lancken and Rychvalsky have already qualified for Australia’s Olympic trials and the Australian National Championships.
In the 2000 Olympic trials, Rychvalsky came in 11th and 12th in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events, respectively. Lancken finished between the top 16 and 20 in the 100- and 200-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly.
Every year the Australian National Championships is the particular qualifying competition for the main event that takes place that year. Last year it was the last step until the World Championships, while this year it will be the major event before the Olympics.
Rychvalsky has finished as high as fifth in her events at the Australian National Championships in 2001 and 2002.
At every Olympic trial in the world, the top two finishers from each event and those who have the appropriate qualifying times will represent their countries in the Olympic Games.
Rychvalsky estimates there will be between 300 and 400 competitors at the Olympic trials in Australia. They will be held at the Sydney Aquatic Center from March 27-April 4.
The Sydney Aquatic Center hosted the swimming events for the 2000 Summer Olympics.
“It’s an awesome venue, the Sydney Aquatic Center,” Rychvalsky said. “It brings a big crowd.”
Lancken said all the preliminaries and finals events were filled to capacity.
“It was huge, probably the biggest swimming arena in the world,” Lancken said. “It was amazing looking up in the crowd, and you couldn’t see the top of the stands.”
Lancken does not feel herself being pressured going into the trials because she doesn’t anticipate making the games.
“I think the pressure is created by the atmosphere more than actual expectations on yourself,” Lancken said. “It’s just a fun meet.”
Fleck said Rychvalsky is ranked high, so there are pressures on her because swimming is very popular in Australia.
“If you’re a world-record holder in swimming, you’re a superstar in Australia,” Fleck said. “Their swim meets are on live TV. Every household in the country knows who their top swimmers are, so it’s a whole different ball game than it is here in the United States.”
Fleck said Rychvalsky’s move to the United States to train could be a positive change because she is able to escape some of the tensions people put on her back home.
“Now all she has to do is just go home and swim,” Fleck said. “She’s not living there day to day with everyone asking her how she’s doing, where she’s going, when she’s going to make it.”
