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COMEBACK? After five years on
dry land, the former world record holder is trying
to make the 2004 Olympic team.
Rod Searcey
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when jeff rouse retired from competitive
swimming in 1996, there wasn’t
much left for him in the pool. The world’s top-ranked
100-meter backstroker had won three Olympic gold medals
and set world records in two events. What else could he accomplish?
Rouse
isn’t sure yet—but he aims to find out. Seven
years after his last race, he’s back in the water at
Stanford in an effort to make the U.S. Olympic team for
the 2004 Athens Games.
At Stanford, Rouse starred alongside
Janet Evans, ’93,
and Summer Sanders, ’94. During his senior year, he captained
the Cardinal squad to the 1992 NCAA championship. “I
never saw Jeff Rouse take a bad stroke in practice,” says
men’s head coach Skip Kenney. “On top of that,
he makes everyone else perfect.”
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Rod Searcey
|
After capturing the 100-meter
gold in the 1996 Olympics, Rouse decided to hang up his
towel. He stayed out of the water
for all but the most casual dips, working as an economic
developer for his home county in Virginia. Two years
ago, “just
to lose a few pounds,” he says, he decided to take a
swim.
“I guess I started getting curious,” Rouse says. “I kept asking
myself, ‘What would it be like to train at this age? Could I swim as fast
as I used to?’ ”
He broached the idea of a comeback with his wife,
Gwen, and parents, and found
them supportive. “I decided to give myself five or six months, to see if
it was a passing phase,” says Rouse. “And I never got tired of it.”
So
he called Kenney, who extended an invitation to train with Stanford’s
team. Last winter, Rouse moved back to California with his sights set on the
Olympic trials next July.
The Cardinal swimmers have responded well to their newest,
33-year-old “teammate.” “[He’s]
been a presence since the day he got here,” says backstroker Markus Rogan, ’04. “Jeff
is living proof of how far dedication, talent and a good attitude can get you.”
The
hardest part? “Relearning some of the things I’ve used in the
past,” says Rouse. “Just a few weeks ago, I hit a part of my stroke
and thought, ‘Oh man, that felt great. I can’t believe I haven’t
remembered that before now.’ ”
Indeed, Rouse has started to regain
his form, placing fifth in the 100-meter backstroke at the ultra-competitive
Santa Clara International Invitational in
June. But making the Olympic team is no sure thing, says Kenney. “In my
mind, [the 100-meter backstroke] is the toughest event in the meet,” Kenney
says. “He’ll have to be ‘on’ that day.” | 
