Maybe people look at me more as a has-been or an underdog in the women’s breaststroke, said Nall, who will celebrate her 19th birthday Friday. There are lots of younger girls doing well. I haven’t performed great in a while. But I think the time is coming when I will. I like being the underdog. Nobody is coming after me.

Said Dawes, who will turn 19 in November:I take everything one day at a time. I just try to get ready for my next meet. I was proud to have made the Olympic team and help the team get a (bronze) medal. Right now, I have to qualify for other competitions. I’m not focusing on (the 1996 Olympics).

It has been a long and sometimes unyielding road for Anita Nall since she broke the world record in the 200-meter breaststroke twice in one day at the 1992 Olympic trials in Indianapolis. As a result, the relative unknown became a big-time star going into Barcelona.

Advertisement

Though most would consider her first Olympics a resounding successwith a bronze in the 200 breaststroke, a silver in the 100 breaststroke and a gold in the 400 medley relayNall came home a bit disappointed. And highly motivated for Atlanta.

When you go to a meet that’s said to be the biggest in the worldthe Olympicsand you don’t do your best time, it leaves an opening, Nall said after a recent workout at the Meadowbrook Swim Club, the Mount Washington, Md., facility where she trains under Murray Stephens. I won a gold medal, but I didn’t win an individual gold. That’s what’s pushing me right now.

That and Stephens, the hard-driving coach of the North Baltimore Aquatic Club team . Nall left Stephens last year and returned to her former coach, Ed Fraser, in her hometown of Harrisburg, Pa., for a little under eight months. She returned to Stephens in March.

Nall’s departure came at a time when she was fighting colds and fatigue. After 10 visits to different doctors, Nall was found to have an iron deficiency. Her world ranking in the 200 breaststroke took a nose-dive. She went from second in 1993 to 13th in 1994 to 22nd currently. Once ranked as high as fourth in the 100s as well, she is no longer in the top 25.

I went through a period where I didn’t think I needed a rough coaching situation, said Nall. I felt like I needed someone who was going to pat me on the back. It took for me to leave Murray to see what I was missing and what I needed for me to come back.

Asked if he thought Nall’s departure last year was going to mean the end of their four-year relationship, Stephens said:I thought we had to consider it. But in the back of my mind, I felt that if she wanted to be competitive again, she would be back here.

With the help of a diet that now includes some red meat, Nall seems to have her health problems under control. Because it still affects her stamina every so often, Nall can’t push herself as hard as she or Stephens would like.

Advertisement*

But she can feel things slowly coming back. Her time of 2 minutes, 32 seconds at the Pan Am Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in March earned her a bronze medal, but it was nearly seven seconds off her former world record (which has been broken since by Australia’s Rebecca Brown). It was a sign that Nall’s comeback is still a work in progress.

Her weak preformances not only have cost Nall in the national rankings, but in her bank account as well. Although she will maintain her $20,000-a-year contract with Speedo through 1996, Nall has lost the monthly training stipends from USA Swimming. Partly as a result, she has moved back into her parents’ home in Towson, Md.

A lot of times, I get frustrated easily, she said. My expectations for myself are still pretty high. I want to do so good so bad.

In some ways, next summer’s Olympics can’t come soon enough for Dominique Dawes. To fill in the time between her training sessions at Hill’s Gymnastics Center in Gaithersburg, Md., Dawes has decided to become a part-time college student.

Having already been accepted at Stanford, with her admission delayed until fall 1996, Dawes plans to take nine credits at Maryland this fall. It is her first step toward life after gymnastics.