Karen Campbell Photo Story

For freshman swimmer Karen Campbell, an experience dreams are made of became more of a nightmare. In March, Campbell went to the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials at the Indianapolis Natatorium to compete in a meet that might have been one of the most important of her life. With high hopes and months of training behind her, Campbell entered two events the 100-meter butterfly and the 50-meter freestyle—trying for a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team. But despite her conditioning, Campbell finished 28th of the 32 butterfly competitors and last in the freestyle. In both races, her times were far behind her personal bests. "It felt strange. It was like I'd forgotten how to swim," Campbell said. "It was like I was just going through the motions. I had no speed—no way to swim the race I usually swim. It was very disappointing and upsetting to swim so poorly." In the 100-meter butterfly, Campbell was considered a strong candidate for making the team for Atlanta. She won the 1995 Spring Senior Nationals and was ninth in the 1995 World Rankings. Her seeded time for the Trials, 1:00.50, was continued

Below: At the Councilman Aquatics Center freshman Karen Campbell laughs with teammates following the dual meet Jan. 19 against the University of Missouri. Campbell, in addition to swimming her butterfly specialty, swam freestyle sprints and medley relays at most meets.

Right: In the weight room of the SRSC, Campbell does repetitious arms lifts with hand weights to strengthen her upper back and trapezoid muscles. This type of exercise, which Campbell did during her training helped to strengthen her butterfly stroke.

Just Short of the Dream

wimmer Karen Campbell ies for 01Nmpic team

Photos and Story by Shinsuke Kobayashi

Leaving for Minneapolis Feb. 20 to attend the Big Ten Swimming Championships, Campbell boards the team bus. Campbell swam the fly, freestyle and three relays at the meet Feb. 22-24.

Practicing her starts from the blocks at the Councilman Aquatics Center Campbell lunges forward. Campbell utilized her powerful starts to gain the edge in her 100-meter butterfly and 50-meter freestyle events at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Between her events, Campbell cheers her teammate swimming at the March 2 dual meet against the University of Kentucky. The meet was at the IU Councilman Aquatics Center.

the fourth fastest among the 32 race participants. For that reason, her time of 1:03.67, which did not even advance her from preliminaries, was a disappointment. Her coach, Nancy Nitardy of the IU women's swimming team, thought there was a problem in Campbell's conditioning program. She said Campbell did a lot of intense training in December and January as part of her program, which might have overtrained her. "Through mid-January, she was doing fine," Nitardy said. But all of a sudden, Campbell started to lose her strength. "Since she appeared so broken down, we really backed off on her in the month of February, just trying to get her rested," Nitardy said. Despite the slack in her training, Campbell never looked as sharp and explosive as she had before the winter training. A promising high school swimmer from Hickory Corners, Mich., Campbell decided to come to IU because of Nitardy. In her senior year of high school, Campbell made continued

During one of her daily afternoon practices, Campbell listens as coach Nancy Nitardy instructs her on bettering her stroke. Nitardy was the single-most important factor which drew Campbell to the IU team.

Campbell intensely practiced her butterfly stroke at daily practices. Her personal best time in the 100-meter butterfly, 1:00.50, seeded her fourth in the U.S. Olympic Trials, but her time placed her 28th in the end.

recruiting trips to five universities: the University of Southern California, Michigan, Northwestern, Wisconsin and IU. She chose IU because she was impressed by Nitardy and wanted to build a new tradition with her. "I really liked Nancy," Campbell said. "I thought she knew what she was talking about and she really wanted to build a team here. "Because most other schools I looked at had already established strong swimming programs and were already nationally known as strong teams, I thought it'd be neat to be a part of something that's never been great and have it become a great thing." Although Campbell's first year as a Hoosier turned out to be a bitter one, she still had three more years during which she hoped to attain some of her goals. "I'll be back," Campbell declared. "I won't let this get me down."

Campbell takes a break between sprint sets at practice. As she increased her taper during February in preparation for the U.S. Olympic Trials, Campbell increased the number of intense sprinting sets she did while decreasing those done to build endurance.

Following the preliminaries of the 50-meter freestyle at the March 12 Olympic Time Trials, Coach Nancy Nitardy consoles Campbell after her last place finish. Campbell also swam, on March 9 of the seven day event held at the Indianapolis Natatorium, in the 100-meter butterfly, her specialty. Despite her fourthplace seed time of 1:00.50, Campbell swam a disappointing time of 1:03.67, earning her 28th place. Although Campbell attributed her less-than expected performance to an improper tapering, she said, "I'll be back. I won't let this get me down."