Trial by water

Wednesday, December 2, 1998

Trial by water

FEATURE: UCLA’s prodigal swimmer searches for redemption in
2000

By Steve Kim

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Dawn, dusk, sunset, sunrise. There’s a distinct mood of
transition that lingers in the hour between night and day, day and
night; the hours in which swimmers and coaches find themselves most
active.

The sun rises or sets over the horizon and casts its gleaming
rays across a pool, at the same time reflecting its brightness onto
an observer’s face on deck. All that glare makes one squint just to
be able to see swimming silhouettes churning away speed and
splash.

In that glow that predictably arrives twice every day, making
the water look like the sun and blue sky, you can truly see Byron
Davis fly.

"Swimming is one of my life’s passions," the butterflyer said
after a tiring afternoon training session. "I realize I’ve been
given the time, talent and opportunity to express myself, my
abilities and what God is doing for me through the sport of
swimming. I’m learning a lot about myself and also motivating and
challenging others through the sport."

He has once again returned to his favorite element for another
attempt at fulfilling what’s yet to be. The former Bruin, 16-time
NCAA All-American and Olympic hopeful returns to full-time training
for the third major time in his life. And every time he’s made the
decision, he’s returned stronger and wiser. It’s not a comeback,
per se. More like a rebirth and a reemergence.

His is a story of promising potential, raised expectation and
painful disappointment multiplied in folds. The pinnacle of a
swimmer’s career comes every four years with the Olympic games.
Make one, and all that you’ve worked for and believed amidst clouds
of doubt and obstacles pays dividends. Miss one, you contemplate
the thought of having spent four or more years of intense physical
and emotional dedication and training.

It wasn’t just once for Davis, as if one isn’t bitter enough,
but twice that he’s missed the Olympics. His first was right after
a record setting Bruin career, in the ’92 Olympic trials. It wasn’t
a matter of not making the team that got to him. It was a matter of
crumbling under pressure. Seeded eighth going into the trials, he
finished 32nd in the 100-meter butterfly.

"I went in not as a favorite, but people wouldn’t have been
surprised if I popped open a good swim," he recalled. "I got to the
Olympic trials and I put too much pressure on myself. I bombed, and
I choked."

He abandoned the sport to pursue law school but found himself
without a sense of closure. He couldn’t get away that easily – two
years passed before he jumped back in the water.

"I would get to a certain point of success in other areas of my
life," Davis said. "All of a sudden, I would deal with the inward
demons that asked, ‘Am I good enough? Can I really do this?’ No
matter what I did, I would accelerate to the top few percent, and
before getting on a higher level, I would sabotage my own
efforts.

"So I realized I would have to get back into the water where I
first recognized this pattern of failure. I wanted to deal with the
fears inside me because I knew I was better, I knew I could swim
faster."

By 1994, UCLA had terminated its men’s swimming team, so Davis
turned to USC and Olympic coach Mark Schubert, who has a successful
program and several Olympians in his pool. With Schubert’s support,
Davis was able to be selected as one of 12 elite swimmers for the
National Resident Team, a new program developed to train athletes
full time at the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs.

There, Davis trained under coach Jonty Skinner with the likes of
current Olympic gold medalists Amy Van Dyken, Jon Olsen and Summer
Sanders. With that kind of training and devotion, Davis was
expected by himself and others to make the ’96 Olympic team.

But he didn’t. In the final heat of the ’96 Olympic trials’
100-meter butterfly, he darted out like a rocket to touch the
50-meter wall in a world record time of 24.08 seconds. Everyone
thought the race was his. But he died out in the last 15 meters and
placed fourth, missing the Olympic team by 0.3 of a second.

"I cried that night," Davis remembered. "To work so hard, put so
much on the line, and for you to just come that short of reaching
the ultimate goal … I would’ve been the first African American to
make the U.S. Olympic swimming team. It would’ve been
unprecedented, and to recognize that it was in my grasp, within the
time it takes to blink your eyes three times. It was a tough pill
for me to swallow. It hurt."

As Davis found out throughout his life’s ups and downs, even the
most frustrating, painful moments act as teachers of wisdom. He
turned that devastating day to his advantage.

"I learned a lot of lessons from that race," he said in
retrospect. "The biggest lesson was you never lose putting your all
on the line. Although the outcome might not be what you expect at
that particular moment in your life, the journey you went through
in order to get to that place is an invaluable experience.

"Your internal fortitude, sense of peace and the way you handle
pressure all become solidified and part of your character. From
that failure, I learned how to win."

Davis thought he would retire for good, but little did he
realize that would not be the case. He married former Bruin
volleyball player Annett Buckner and took up UCLA women’s swimming
team head coach Cyndi Gallagher’s offer to be the assistant coach.
He also started giving motivational speeches to groups and
organizations emphasizing perseverance and overcoming
limitations.

He was fine for awhile, but again, he got restless.

"Cyndi gave me a great opportunity, but she knew and I knew I
wasn’t called to be coach at that time," he said. "I realized after
my first season of coaching that I wanted to be in the water
racing.

"And when you realize that, you have to step out on faith. You
have to be able to rely on God, who is greater than you are, who is
able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that you can ask or
think. And even though you don’t have a clear path, you don’t
exactly know what your next step will be, the answers will come
about."

Whereas he was knocking on doors to earn speaking engagements in
the beginning, clients are now coming to him. Davis was then able
to pay the bills and financially support his training through his
public speaking, which he finds as his second passion in life.

In summer, Davis asked Schubert to return to his pool for some
serious training.

"I said, ‘Mark, if you believe that I’m able, that I can do it,
and if you want to give me the chance, I’ll do what ever it takes.’
And he bought it," Davis smiled. "He believes in it. He sees the
vision and he’s willing to do what ever that’s required in order
for me to make it."

His new coach said Davis has adjusted to his program relatively
well and fast.

"He’s a perfectionist and technique is very important to him,"
Schubert explained. "Right now we’re working on his endurance
phase, trying to improve on the last 15 meters of his race.

"He’s training very well," Schubert added. "In fact, I’ve been
amazed at how quickly he’s gotten into shape and how well he’s
handling the training load."

Having returned to the pool at this phase in his life, Davis
knew his body would require more time to adjust.

"My first three weeks here was really painful," he admitted. "I
had shoulder injuries I never had before and I was fatigued. But
our bodies are great tools in that they’ll naturally adapt to the
conditions we give it. And it does it for the purpose of
succeeding. So I knew that if I was honest with my training, my
body would adapt, and it has.

"I also knew coming into this that I could not and I would not
compare the way my body was adapting and changing in the past," he
added. "I decided to suspend judgment, jump in and allow myself to
grow and learn new things. That fresh attitude has allowed me to
manage the pain and the discomfort. I’m nowhere out of the jungle
yet, but I think the progress has been awesome."

Byron Davis is arriving, again. Not as an old swimmer making a
comeback, but as a renewed athlete with wiser perspective. He will
mark his training progress by entering the U.S. Open which is
coming up this weekend in College Station, Texas.

"I’m going there and I will race. I will race hard. I will race
smart," he declared. "I’m going to be very happy to make finals and
deep down inside, I want to win. But I’m not embracing any
expectations. I’m just going in to find out where I am in
relationship to my competition and relative to where I want to be
this summer at Nationals and ultimately Sydney."

"Right now," Schubert suggested, "the main thing is for him to
be patient. He doesn’t like to lose. He just needs to remind
himself that this is a long term project we want to have come to
fulfillment a year from this summer. So he has plenty of time and
he as a good shot of accomplishing what he wants."

He plans to continue training for the 2000 Olympics and motivate
and challenge people through his public speaking. For all it’s
worth, Davis has no regrets about deciding to pursue his passion in
spite of social expectation for one in his near-thirties to settle
down and find security in a 9-to-5 job.

One thing for sure, his past will not limit him. Not this time.
It’ll only make him stronger. And with that revelation, he’s set
himself free.

"The word ‘comeback’ implies an attachment to my past," he said.
"I don’t want to be held down or limited by my past at all. I have
just made a new decision in life; a decision to say, ‘You know
what? I’m willing to put my all on the line.’ And regardless of
what happens, I know the best will surface."PATIL ARMENIAN

Byron Davis, a former UCLA swimmer and assistant coach to the
swim teams, is currently training for the 2000 Olympic Games in
Sydney, Australia.

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