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Carvin climbs all the way back
INDIANAPOLIS -- Chad Carvin's lowest moment happened several months before his last Olympic trials. He felt fatigued, always tired. He went in for tests and doctors told him he was fine, missing the signs that when a world-class athlete had only a normal heart rate, there was, in fact, a big problem. It was psychological, Carvin figured, a flaw in his character. As he prepared for the biggest year of his life, this distance-freestyle favorite to make the Olympic team was choking. The stress was so bad, Carvin went to his bottle of allergy medicine, the one he knew to take in moderation, and started chugging. His mother, Julia, choking up as she remembers it, still isn't convinced that her son Chad wanted to leave her, the rest of the family and a brilliant swim career behind. "It was the only thing he's ever tried in his life and failed, so maybe he didn't try very hard," she says. Fortunately, two days after Carvin's botched suicide attempt, he enjoyed one of his best moments. He walked out of another doctor's office, beaming to his mom that he had been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy. He wasn't crazy. He had a treatable, physical problem. His heart was pumping less than 50 percent of the blood it was supposed to. "I could do plenty of laps," Carvin recalls. "I just felt like crap." In December 1995, two weeks before his heart would likely have given up pumping altogether, Carvin went on medication. He was bedridden for weeks and could only do moderate activity for 90 days. On the day his doctor gave him permission to do a "'round-town bike ride," Carvin rode for 24 miles, then headed for a local gym to shoot some baskets. He still couldn't go to the Olympic trials in March 1996. "I was at home in my parents' house in California," recalls Carvin, who received get-well cards from Tom Hanks and President Clinton, among others. "I watched the first day on TV and just broke down into tears. I couldn't watch any more." He has given motivational speeches that have turned into cathartic therapy sessions, and he has left the pool in tears on many occasions. On Wednesday he left the IUPUI Natatorium as an Olympian for the first time. Carvin placed second behind Klete Keller in the men's 400-meter freestyle. "I imagined this tens of thousands of times," Carvin said afterwards. Julia, who would have made the Olympic team in random hugging, told reporters: "The last time we were worried about living, so to be worried about making the Olympics is a luxury." Sandeno will play hookyKaitlin Sandeno knew the signs were good on her way to the pool Wednesday. "I'm really hyper before a race," she said. "On the way over I was rockin' out in the car. Some people are off to themselves. I'm like, 'Oh, yeah, come talk to me.' I definitely go into a free-minded mode, very talkative." A few hours later Sandeno, 17, won the women's 400-meter individual medley, interrupting every few words with tears of joy. Sandeno, who touched almost two seconds ahead of fellow Olympian Maddy Crippen, will be a little late to high school in Laguna Hills, Calif., this fall, which is no way for a student council vice president to start her senior year. But then, most students aren't spending their Septembers at their first Olympics. "As soon as I get [home], I'm gonna need a lot of time off," Sandeno says, "but I think it's a good excuse." The question now for Sandeno is what to swim the rest of the week. She qualified for eight events, but will likely compete in the 200 fly, 400 free and 800 free. The 200 free has always been a possibility because she could gain another medal on the 4x200 relay team. It's ironic that Sandeno would be thinking of such a short race. It wasn't long ago that at the end of a 12,000-14,000-meter workout at the Gator Swim Club, Sandeno would sprint against the smaller kids and lose. But a four-inch growth spurt over just eight months has made her stronger. She underwent surgery on her left shoulder earlier this year, causing her to miss most of February and March, so she simply spent more time hanging out in her favorite dance club until the tendinitis went away. "I need to blow off steam all the time," she says. "The more excited I get, the more steam I need to blow off." Here's hoping the headphones work on her flight to Sydney. Brian Cazeneuve is a Sports Illustrated writer-reporter who covers the Olympics and is a frequent contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his Sydney 2000 Mailbag.
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