Wednesday, August 23 Walker needed to be a split-second faster
	Scripps Howard News Service Four years ago, Neil Walker saw his Olympic dream evaporate in a split-second. Make that a fraction of a split-second. At the 1996 U.S. Olympic swimming trials, Walker missed qualifying by one-hundredth of a second. Neil Walker is motivated knowing he's swimming for the entire country. "It was tougher to take than if I had gotten beat by a half-second or something," said Walker, who will try again to make his first Olympics team at the 2000 trials, Aug. 9-16 in Indianapolis. "It was something like flipping a coin. It's mind-boggling to think about a hundredth of a second and how short that is." Walker was able to rebound from that disappointment and now is one of the trials favorites in the 50 and 100-meter freestyle and the 100-meter backstroke. "It was tough to watch the (1996) Games, but my teammate (at the University of Texas) Josh Davis won three gold medals," said Walker, a native of Verona, Wis. "That helped me forget all the stuff that I had been going through. I turned that negative energy and really used the last four years to get ready for this moment. "There's more motivation from (the fact) that the U.S. really needs me. When I was in college, that was such a motivational factor when the whole team was relying on me to score more points to beat the next team. Now I'm swimming for the whole country. They need me to swim on relays, need me to swim really well. I really want to represent the U.S. to the best of my ability." After graduating from the University of Texas in 1998, Walker remained in Austin to train under Texas coach Eddie Reese. But his allegiance to his native Wisconsin still remains strong. "I fell in love with Texas," said Walker, 24. "I really love it there. But I'm originally a Cheesehead. I'm a Northern boy, so it's kind of hard to forget your roots, but I don't miss the snow and the cold weather." There is one thing he does miss -- his beloved Green Bay Packers. So who does Walker root for when the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay play? "The Packers. Don't even get me started on that." The grandest dame In 1992, Angie Wester-Krieg was described as "the Grande Dame of U.S. Swimming." It's hard to say what that makes her now. At 35, Wester-Krieg is still swimming. Very well, in fact. She has qualified for her sixth U.S. Olympic trials, which is a record as far as USA Swimming officials can determine. Wester-Krieg is the Energizer bunny of swimmers. Unlike some of her contemporaries -- notably Dara Torres, who took seven years off from the sport before returning to the pool recently for one more try at Olympic glory -- she has never dried off. "I've just kept right on swimming," she said. Wester-Krieg said there has never been any grand plan behind her longevity. "It's not like when I was a teenager, I said to myself, "I'll still be swimming competitively 20 years from now,"' said Wester-Krieg, who will compete in the 100 and 200-meter butterfly events. "Swimming is a learning process, like everything in life. This is just the arena I've chosen to live and grow in." Politics and water polo The U.S. men's water polo team had to pull out of the European Nations Water Polo League tournament, August 9-13, in Yugoslavia, due to safety concerns. The U.S. State Department warned that there could be violence against the team in retaliation for U.S. government's Yugoslavian policy during and after the Kosovo War. "We are very disappointed to learn of the State Department's concerns for our team's safety in Belgrade," said Bruce Wigo, Executive Director for U.S. Water Polo. "Over the years we have had great relations with the Yugoslavian water polo federation and this tournament was very important for our pre-Olympic training. The timing is very unfortunate and really leaves our team hanging without a tournament that our coaching staff was counting on before Sydney."