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Head of the class

By Daily Bruin Staff

July 7, 1996 9:00 p.m.

Sunday, July 7, 1996Discipline is master stroke for swimmer
Annette SalmeenBy Esther Hui

Summer Bruin Staff

If there was one word to describe Annette Salmeen in her last
year as a UCLA swimmer, it would be disciplined.

After all, during her senior year Salmeen balanced training for
the Olympics, the regular NCAA swimming season, and three to four
hours a day in a biochemistry lab. Which wouldn’t be so unusual,
except that she excelled in all areas. She attained an Olympic
berth in the 200-meter butterfly and 800 freestyle relay, and her
3.93 cumulative GPA is the highest of any UCLA athlete.

But one of the first things that you’ll notice about Salmeen is
how little she feels she’s had to be disciplined. Salmeen is
ecstatic about swimming and enjoys working in the lab. She is
excited that she gets to spend her days doing what she loves. And
with good reason, since all of her hard work is beginning to pay
off.

When asked if she had made many sacrifices in realizing her
Olympic dream, she replied quickly:

"I say choices. There is very little I feel I’ve missed out on.
I find I just can’t relate when people are talking about a new
movie or a new music, and it’s because I’ve spent a quarter of my
life in the water. I haven’t led the typical social life, but the
rewards have been more significant (in swimming) than anything I’ve
had to give up ­ except maybe sleep."

UCLA head coach Cyndi Gallagher said, "She loves to learn, and
she loves challenges. She’s going to do the best in both (swimming
and academics). She’s a role model for people that you can do
both."

Salmeen’s philosophy is simple: the only thing she has control
over is what she does on a daily basis, which happens to be what
she enjoys the most, swimming and chemistry . Her focus isn’t on
large goals such as the Olympics or NCAA championships, but on how
hard she studies every night, and how good her technique is in swim
practice.

"I can’t control the outcome or what everybody else does,"
Salmeen said. "I’ve learned that as I’ve gone along. I think about
it as a process, the strategy and the technique. If I get too
focused on, ‘Oh, I want to win a gold medal,’ or I want to get this
time, I tend to forget what I’m doing with the race.

"Going into Atlanta, I don’t have a goal or expectations for a
medal or a time ­ as much as I’d love to do that. I’m
thinking, how can I get to this end of the pool, to the finish as
fast as possible."

It was after a disappointing race at the 1992 Olympic trials
that Salmeen realized that there was more to swimming than big
races and personal best times. Salmeen remembers being more focused
on the possibility of making the Olympic team than on the race she
was swimming. As a result she lost all perspective.

Now Salmeen tries to look at disappointments as learning
experiences, and the Olympic trials as just another step in the
daily march towards progress. Though she doesn’t mind admitting
that she was so excited about qualifying that she only slept 20
minutes the night after she made the team.

"Everyone has dreams of the Olympics," Gallagher said. "That was
never her goal. Her goal was to be the best athlete, the best
person. Sometimes with concrete goals, if you don’t make it you
think, ‘Why did I spend so much time swimming?’"

"I was at a national team camp in November," Salmeen said, "and
I remember Jill Sturkel, who’d been in three or four Olympics,
stood up and said there’s nothing like giving everything that
you’ve got. For some reason that really stuck in my head. I’ve
always worked really hard at swimming, but this year since it was
my last year around, I was able to give a lot more than I had in
the past."

After the Olympics, Salmeen plans to take a little time off from
swimming, which she has been doing year-round for 13 years. In the
last year and a half she has not had more than two days off.
Salmeen still has a year left to finish off her chemistry degree,
and plans to attend graduate school. But for now, as she has for
the past four years, Salmeen takes it one day at a time.

"(After I first made the Olympic team) I was sort of nonchalant
about it," Salmeen said. "But now that it’s closer I’m like, ‘O.K.,
let’s go!’"

SUSIE CHU/Daily BruinExcelling both in and out of the water,
Olympian Annette Salmeen’s ability and mentality are the factors
that will help her to land a gold medal.

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