July 5, 2004

Missouri swimming Coach Brian Hoffer has a return flight from Long Beach, Calif., for July 11 he'll have no problem canceling. That day, his prized pupil, Rebecca Wolfe, could be chasing one of two elusive invitations to the Olympic Games in the 200-meter butterfly. He'll join Wolfe in Long Beach all week for the Olympic Trials, but his flight home is scheduled to leave before the final round of competition.

"It'll be easiest flight I ever cancel," Hoffer joked earlier this week. But first, the Missouri senior must advance to the semifinal round of 16 then reach the final eight - a real challenge for a swimmer that lacks one seemingly necessary ingredient - at least in her words.

"I openly admit that I don't have talent," Wolfe said Monday after a workout at the MU Natatorium. "That's not where my success comes from."

Surely a two-time qualifier for the Olympic Trials has some swimming talent. Surely a two-time Big 12 champion, a two-time NCAA Championships qualifier and All-American, has some talent hidden in her compact 5-foot-7 frame. But talent alone doesn't explain the impressive r?sum? for the swimmer Hoffer calls the hardest worker he's ever coached.

"I certainly think her work ethic is as good as anyone I've ever had," he said. "And she has the talent. But her talent is only good if she's in really good shape. She knows that about herself. If she takes four weeks off after the Olympic Trials, and then she jumps back in the water, she'll be very average. Some people can jump in and swim fast any time. She has to train a certain way for a certain amount of time for her body to work well in the water."

Said Wolfe: "I enjoy the practices. I'd never wish I was the one that had all the talent and didn't have to work hard. It sounds cheesy, but it's not as intrinsically rewarding if you jump in and win without putting in all the effort."

That attitude explains why the former transfer from Nebraska rebounded from a disappointing sophomore season and emerged as one of the nation's elite butterfly specialists. An emotional, physically taxing 2001-02 season was hard on Wolfe, but it was on Hoffer's advice that she might have saved a swimming career that was 13 years in the making.

After that season - Wolfe's first at MU - Hoffer told her to stay away from the pool for six weeks.

"She hated it," he said. "She needs to be in the water."

Unlike most long and lean Olympic-caliber swimmers, Wolfe carries a smaller, bulkier frame. Her unusual strength pays off in the final 50-meter stretch of the 200 fly, when, Hoffer said, "she's just going to beat you because she's so fit. She has a stroke that doesn't break down. You wouldn't believe how strong she is."

But that unique body type and uncommon strength require constant conditioning - not six weeks away from the pool.

"In swimming, you miss two or three practices and you feel different," Wolfe, 21, said. "I hate to be out of the water because I worry too much about getting out of shape. It wasn't that I physically needed to get out of the water. But mentally, I needed to be away from it for a while."

Two years later, Wolfe's preparing for a meet she has no trouble admitting will be her last. Her chances of securing a spot on the Olympic team are remote considering a loaded field that includes Georgia's NCAA champion Mary DeScenza and three-time Olympic bronze medalist Kaitlin Sandeno. Wolfe's best time of 2 minutes, 14.63 seconds, which she set last August, is more than 5 seconds off the winning time at the 2000 Olympic Trials.

But Wolfe is heading west with other goals.

"People outside of swimming ask me, 'Are you going to the Olympics?' And when I tell them no, they say, 'Well, if you look at it that way ...' " said Wolfe, who missed the semifinal cut at the 2000 Trials. "It's extremely hard to make that team. They only take the top two in every meet, so I'm looking at it much more realistically. If I finish in the top 16, I'd be extremely happy. And anything that's a best time I'd be totally satisfied."

"If she makes another solid drop, we're talking a second or so, then I think she'll get to the" semifinals, Hoffer said. "We're just trying to get to that. She can't control everyone else, only herself. So if she gets her best time but gets 17th place and not in the top 16, that's OK."

After Long Beach, Wolfe has a semester of school to finish. The rest is an unwritten script.

"It's good closure," Wolfe said. "I've been swimming for 15 years now, and it's not an easy sport. My career's been very up and down. And I'll be honest, I'm looking forward to life after swimming.

"My life has never really been without swimming, so I don't know what it'll be like. But I'm looking forward to not knowing."