Three men. Three strokes. Three world-record holders.
What exactly is it about the University of Texas and this sport not called football? Staying in the water to get out of the heat? Or is it what they are putting in the water in Austin? As backstroker Aaron Peirsol said recently, "That's a good question. Pacifico ... with lime."
U.S. Olympic Coach Eddie Reese, who also is the men's swimming coach at Texas, has a simpler explanation about his star-laden squad, which will be contending for medals -- most of them gold -- this month in Athens.
"It's not the culture. It's not the water," Reese said. "It's the people in the water."
There is the newest world-record holder, Brendan Hansen, who established marks in the 100-meter breaststroke and 200 breaststroke at the U.S. Olympic trials in Long Beach. In the 100, he became the first American to break one minute, going 59.30 seconds.
Then there is Ian Crocker, who holds the world record in the 100 butterfly and has consecutive victories over Michael Phelps at that distance.
And finally, there is Peirsol, the first of the three to set a world record, the 200 backstroke in 2002, and the first to win an individual Olympic medal, a silver in the 200 backstroke in Sydney, Australia, in 2000.
Hansen and Crocker made significant progress after arriving on campus in Austin. But Peirsol, who swam at Newport Harbor High and for the Irvine Novaquatics, already had an impressive resume. This unnerved the usually unflappable Reese.
"Aaron Peirsol came in with a world record in the 200 backstroke. I thought it was so fast, I was scared to death," Reese said on the last day of the trials. "Because I didn't know if I could get him to go to fast. After three weeks, I knew why he was a hard man to stop -- because he works hard, he races anybody."
And at Texas, there was plenty of competition every day.
"We just push each other so well," Peirsol said of his Texas teammates. "I've learned more the past two years than I've learned my entire career. Just from the guys I swim with."
Peirsol, who gave up his college eligibility after completing his second year at Texas, invented a creative challenge one day at practice. Reese recounted one anecdote involving Hansen and Peirsol in the web diary he is writing for the Longhorns.
"Aaron will race anyone, any time, any place or any stroke," Reese wrote. "In fact, he challenged Brendan Hansen in the breaststroke during the college season, making Brendan wear a T-shirt and shorts. Aaron came in second, but he was thinking of the next challenge."
