Meet UGA's Kara Lynn Joyce -- the nation's best swimmer

By Erin Camp

Kara Lynn Joyce has heard the question before: "Oh, you're an athlete? What sport do you play?"

Kara Lynn Joyce may be smiling here, but turn on her favorite movie -- The Notebook -- and watch her smile turn to tears. AP

"I don't think anyone knows I'm a swimmer -- some people are surprised to hear I'm an athlete," she says jokingly from her hotel room in Minneapolis, where she and the rest of the Georgia Bulldogs swim team stayed for last week's NCAA swimming and diving championships, which airs on ESPN2 on Wednesday.

What started as a five-year-old's dream to be as "cool" as her two older brothers, who were also swimmers, turned into a possibly record-breaking career. This year's NCAA championship was the last for the 21-year-old senior from Ann Arbor, whose 18 total NCAA titles fell one shy of Jenny Thompson's unofficial record of 19.

There are no lucky charms, no superstitions, no special songs from favorite artists Kelly Clarkson, Jay-Z or James Blunt, or any other such traditional preparation for the Speech Communications major before she takes her mark on the starting block. "All that stuff messes up the whole strategy" says Joyce, who would much rather catch the attention of her fans and family in the stands -- a family that has been known to dress in hats and T-shirts emblazoned with TEAM JOYCE.

Joyce says her greatest accomplishment was winning the NCAAs in her sophomore year as a team, and attributes her overall success to her teammates and swim coach Jack Baurle. "That's very refreshing for someone of her level," says roommate and teammate Melissa Klein. "She's always watching out for her teammates, and pays attention to every person on the team."

If Joyce wasn't a swimmer, she says she would probably not be playing any other sport, saying that her lack of coordination would be a big problem. She says that she has tried other sports in the past but they didn't work out. She says she would probably be going to school close to home, and has also ruled out a career in singing--by default.

"She belts out songs, she's not modest when it comes to that," Klein says. "When I first met her, the song Dust in the Wind was on. She was singing so loud to the point where it wasn't even words, it was just one long note -- it was the most atrocious thing I've ever heard. That will always and forever be her song." Klein also says that Joyce "can get to talking, sometimes all night long." "She's just a fun person to be around."

When asked if they have traditions such as going out to restaurants or making an appearance at local hangouts, the swimmers laugh at thought of having enough time in their schedules. With very little time not spent swimming, sleeping, in class or eating, Joyce says that there is not much time to hang out around campus. There is time, however, to watch her favorite movie The Notebook over and over again. And even though the ending never changes, "I bawl every time," Joyce says.

Now the award-winning swimmer says her last meet was "Bittersweet. It's not something I take for granted being on a team this accomplished. We have a great coaching staff and group of girls; we're almost like a family." A family, she says, that spends every Thursday night watching Grey's Anatomy, a show that Joyce says is the only topic of conversation on Fridays during practice. "It'll never be like this again, I'm really going to miss that."