| | Associated Press
BURKE, Va. -- Ed Moses burned out on swimming. Practice took
up too much time and he wasn't having fun.
So he quit -- at age 10.
|  | | A handicap of six wasn't good enough for Ed Moses. |
Six years later, when he realized his 6 handicap wasn't going to
get him a college golf scholarship, Moses dived back into the pool
and started taking the sport seriously during his senior year in
high school. That was 1997.
Now -- much to the disbelief of coaches and parents, not to
mention teammates who have trained virtually nonstop for thousands
of hours since they were toddlers -- Moses is a favorite to win a
gold medal at the Sydney Olympics.
"It really has been remarkable," said Pete Morgan, Moses'
coach at the Curl-Burke swim club. "From not even on the map at
all, not even registered in U.S. swimming, in October 1997, to No.
1 in the world, it really is quick."
Moses, 19, has been the buzz of the swimming world since he swam
the fifth-fastest 100-meter breaststroke ever to win the gold medal
at last year's Pan Am Games, where his mother held up a sign
proclaiming: "Part the Water, Moses." Most overnight sensations
quietly have been paying their dues for years, but not Moses, who
realizes he was somewhat lucky to rediscover his natural talent
just in time.
"I think it started out with a little bit of talent for
swimming," said Moses, who is expected to qualify for both the
100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke at the Olympic trials in
August. "I'm not too bulky of a guy, but I have enough strength to
get through the water."
His immediate success wasn't easy for some to fathom. Parents
started wondering if years of sacrifice were really necessary if a
natural can just come along and sweep everyone else aside. There
was some jealousy among Moses' teammates as the newfound prodigy
rose to 16th in the world in the 100-meter breaststroke after just
10 months of training.
"When a guy who had paid his dues sees a guy he's never heard
of standing next to him on a podium -- a no-name -- there's going to
be some guys scratching their heads," Morgan said.
The jealousy faded, largely because of Moses himself. Though
fiercely competitive in the pool, he is characterized by friends as
polite, unassuming and far from arrogant.
"Ed's a team leader," said Bill Smythe, assistant coach at the
University of Virginia, where Moses competed as a freshman and
sophomore before giving up his eligibility this spring. "He knows
the difference between confidence and cockiness."
Moses is also diligent, watching videotapes of himself and
former Curl-Burke swimmer Mike Barrowman, the 200-meter
breaststroke gold medalist at Barcelona in 1992. Moses wants to
hone a smooth, efficient stroke that makes other competitive
swimmers look unpolished.
"Unfortunately, the message is not really: Those of you who are
hacking around a golf course, why don't you just hop in the pool
and see if you can be world-ranked in two years," Morgan said.
"Yeah, he was a golfer, but the reality is that here is that
wonderful combination of skills at the world-class level combined
with the wonderful willingness to take those skills to world-class
training levels.
"Who knows? Out of all those millions of stories of the
50-somethings, men and women saying, 'I wish I'd done this,' maybe
the difference in a few of those stories was they didn't have the
mentor that grabbed them. It's good fortune, as much as anything.
Ed's catalyst happened to be me, lucky for me."
Morgan didn't realize how lucky, initially.
He first saw Moses in 1997 in a summer league in which Moses was
swimming for the fun of it.
"It's not like anything stood out," Morgan said. "He swam OK
times."
After the high school golf season, Moses started training with
Morgan full time. Moses didn't make much of an impression until his
first race, when he won a 100-yard breaststroke race in Richmond
despite nearly running out of gas at the end.
From then on, it was a matter of improving Moses' conditioning
and somehow getting him to bottle up the adrenaline and drive he
showed in the race and repeat it daily in practice. Before long, he
was posting times that had Virginia and other colleges calling.
Smythe remembers attending the 1998 summer nationals with head
coach Mark Bernardino after Moses had committed to Virginia. They
watched their new swimmer finish third.
"He got out of the water and walked straight over to Mark after
the race, apologizing to Mark with tears in his eyes," Smythe
said. "When he did that, we knew we had something special. He
thought he'd let us down."
Moses won his share of races with the Cavaliers before capturing
his Pan Am Games gold. He's taking a year off from school for the
Olympics, but hopes Sydney is only just the beginning. Because he
got his burnout out of the way at an early age, Moses should have
no trouble staying on top through Athens in 2004.
"He is so new and so fresh," Morgan said. "He still is
playing catch-up. That's what makes him so dangerous. There really
is no end to his progress in sight right now."
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