| | Associated Press
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. -- After a dip in her backyard pool,
Angel Martino wraps a towel around her waist and curls up on the
sofa, surrounded by the trappings of her new life.
Toy cars are strewn about near a treadmill. An action figure
shares the floor with a workout machine.
"I'm in a good place in my life," the six-time Olympic
medalist said. "I'm not consumed totally by swimming like I used
to be. I love it more than anything. But it's a sport. It's not my
life."
At that very moment, 3-year-old Michael jumped in his mother's
arms, displaying a great sense of timing.
|  | | Angel Martino says it won't be the end of the world if she doesn't make the Olympic team. |
"This is my life now," Martino said, giving the boy a hug.
Still, the lure of the pool was too strong for Martino to
resist. After having her first child in 1997, she began swimming to
lose some of the 60 pounds she put on during pregnancy. The weight
dropped off, and so did the time it took to get from one end to the
other.
By last year, she had given up on the idea of retirement. Now,
at 33, she is hoping to earn an improbable spot on her third
Olympic team -- with husband, Mike, and child in tow.
"I saw some of the results the other girls were swimming, and
they weren't swimming that fast," Mike Martino said.
"They're swimming faster now," Angel said, glancing at her
husband with mock disgust.
She hasn't set the bar too high, merely hoping for a spot in the
relays. Martino is the nation's fifth-ranked swimmer in the
100-meter freestyle, and the top six in that event will be going to
Sydney.
Just imagine: Martino could march in the opening ceremony for
the first time. She had to rest in Barcelona and Atlanta because
she was swimming the following day.
On the other hand, she won't be too disappointed if things don't
work out at the Olympic trials, which begin Wednesday in
Indianapolis.
"It's so different now," Martino said. "When I'm training, I
might be thinking, 'Well, Michael really needs to go to the doctor
today.' Or, 'I've got to go to the grocery store to get something
for Michael.'"
Her husband adds, "There's more important things than
swimming."
It wasn't always this way, of course. She was admittedly
selfish, focused totally on her sport with little time for anything
else.
"You can get so caught up in the swimming world," Martino
said. "It's a little soap opera out there. We call it 'As The Pool
Turns.' It's hard to step back from that sometimes. But Michael
makes it easier."
Martino might have been going to the Olympics for the fourth
time if not for her own little soap opera. In 1988, she was kicked
off the American team after a positive test for a banned substance
that she claimed was caused by birth control pills.
After serving a two-year suspension, Martino rebounded to make
the 1992 Olympic team, winning two medals in Barcelona. But her
crowning moment came four years ago, when she won two golds and two
bronzes in Atlanta, about a two-hour drive from her hometown of
Americus.
"It says a lot about Angel," her husband said. "She had a lot
of catching up to do. Now, she's one of the most decorated Olympic
athletes in history."
With her curly blond hair still a bit damp from a morning
workout, Martino talks easily about her past troubles - and the
direction her life has taken over the past decade.
"There's a reason for everything," she said. "I don't think I
would still be swimming without that earlier adversity. I think
that's why I've stuck with it so long."
Martino and her family moved to the sleepy town of Milledgeville
three years ago, buying a sprawling, ranch-style home not far from
Lake Sinclair. Her husband, a native of New Jersey, teaches
kinesiology at the local school, Georgia College and State
University. He also coaches his wife and shares in the parenting
duties.
Out back, Mike Martino and some of his students installed a
special, aboveground pool that Angel uses for much of her training.
Donated by one of her sponsors, Splash Super Pools, the $60,000
apparatus is Olympic-length -- 50 meters -- but only two lanes wide
and 4 feet deep.
The Martinos can't afford to heat the pool in the winter, so she
moves her training inside to the college's shorter pool. She also
has to work on her starts at the college, since her backyard pool
isn't deep enough for diving.
It beats the alternative: the closest Olympic-sized pool is an
hour's drive away.
Martino is only about five pounds above her weight before she
had a child, swimming now at around 155 pounds. Of course, her body
has changed.
"Those five pounds aren't going anywhere," she said. "They're
a part of me now."
The new-style bodysuits have helped Martino cope with a little
extra weight around the middle. She plans to wear the revolutionary
attire at the trials, donning a style that leaves her arms exposed
but stretches all the way to her ankles. It took a while to find
the right fit, but she's worn the high-tech suit at her last three
meets.
"For me, it makes a big difference," Martino said, sucking in
a stomach that anyone else would consider rock-hard. "The suit
really holds everything in. It's like wearing a big girdle."
The family usually travels together, having bought a
television-VCR for the car that keeps 3-year-old Michael
entertained on long rides. He doesn't mind life on the road, but
there's always something unexpected to shake things up.
"A couple of weeks ago, Michael was sick all night," his mom
said. "He was throwing up at 4:30 in the morning. I wasn't able to
swim the next day because I was too tired."
But she has no complaints about a life that is no longer focused
solely on swimming.
"It can be a good thing, too," Martino said, glancing lovingly
at her son. "My life is in balance."
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