Swimming

Many adults know how to swim -- that is, they can get from one end of the pool to the other without too much trouble. But to swim proficiently and with finesse, they must learn to properly stroke, kick and breathe. That's where swim coach Nancy Kirkpatrick-Reno comes in.

Jessica Hardy quit school at California to come home and train with Dave Salo at USC because, she says, he's the only coach who can keep swimming fun for her. Otherwise she'd be bored to tears. Jason Lezak used to be coached by Salo. Now Lezak, 32, trains by himself in an empty Irvine pool in the middle of the day. Hardy says Lezak is crazy and if she did that she'd put together an outline of a program every day and do half. Lezak says he's too old and grumpy to train with a group any more.

Michael Phelps won the men's 400-yard individual medley race Sunday night at the Toyota Southern California Grand Prix at Belmont Plaza Olympic pool, even though his goggles filled up with water at the start. Kaitlin Sandeno of Lake Forest won her third race in three days, taking charge of the women's 400 individual medley during the breaststroke and winning by two lengths over the field, even though she has a burgeoning case of bronchitis.

Michael Phelps won two of the three events he swam Monday night at the Toyota Southern California Grand Prix at the Belmont Plaza Olympic pool in Long Beach. More important to the man who aims to win eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympics is that he swam faster times than he did in this meet a year ago. Phelps won the 100-yard butterfly in 45.40 seconds. Last year he swam it in 46.05. He won the 100-yard backstroke in 45.50 seconds and last year he swam it in 45.90.

Alain Bernard broke the 100-meter freestyle record for the second time in as many days Saturday, clocking 47.50 seconds at the European swimming championships at Eindhoven, Netherlands, to win his first major title. In Friday's semifinals, the Frenchman swam 47.60 to shatter the world record that Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband set at the 2000 Sydney Games.

The battle between high-tech swimsuit manufacturers TYR and Speedo has escalated in a significant way, moving from the pool deck to the legal arena. Huntington Beach's TYR Sport Inc. upped the stakes by filing suit on Monday in federal court against Warnaco Swimwear Inc., parent company of Speedo and producer of the news-making LZR Racer swimsuit. TYR did not specify the damages it was seeking but did estimate that the long-term loss to the value of its brand could reach $500,000.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- One day after learning about a lawsuit filed in federal court by TYR Sport against Speedo that names Olympic swimmer Erik Vendt as a defendant, Vendt's agent fired back, saying his management firm would no longer work with the Huntington Beach company. Evan Morgenstein of Premier Management Group said in an e-mail Thursday night that the "unfair treatment" of Vendt prompted his decision. Existing contracts would be fulfilled, he added.

OMAHA -- What happens when advocacy intersects with the legal system? "You know, if I was to respond to that question I would be responding in a way that would give away some of our strategy and I'm just not prepared to do that yet," USA Swimming's Mark Schubert said. The question, in fact, was a bit more complicated on Friday after at a luncheon here at the Mutual of Omaha Plaza Building during the four-day Swimvitational, a test event for the U.S. Olympic swim trials.

OMAHA -- One shock after another unfolded at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, almost a changing of the guard in one session Thursday night at the Qwest Center. Brendan Hansen, who held the world record in the 200-meter breaststroke a month ago, won't be swimming that event in Beijing. Nor will the silver medalist at the World Championships last year in the 200 butterfly (Kim Vandenberg) or the woman who finished fourth at the trials four years ago at that distance (Mary DeScenza).

OMAHA -- There was someone who knew as far back as last summer that Dara Torres would make the 2008 U.S. Olympic swimming team, at age 41, no less. Not anyone in her household or her considerable entourage. But it was someone who had known her since she was swimming for a club team in Culver City, at age 13. It was USA Swimming's Mark Schubert, who began coaching her a few years later at Mission Viejo. "The comeback kind of blew me away when she . . .