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closeEmerald Ridge alumna hopes to bring home a gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke
Great athletes have an astute ability to sense how well they’ve performed despite their sometimes chaotic surrounding milieus.
This was the case for Megan Jendrick at the U.S. Swimming Olympic trials in the 100-meter breaststroke on July 1 in Omaha, Neb.
Once the race was over, Jendrick already knew she had achieved her goal of advancing to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.
“I knew after I touched that wall that I was on the Olympic team,” Jendrick said. “It was a combination of excitement and relief. There’s no more stress or pressure anymore.”
Jendrick’s time of 1:07.50 in the 100-meter breaststroke signaled a return to the Olympics after she failed to qualify for the 2004 games in Athens, Greece. Jendrick, who changed her name from Megan Quann when she got married, won two goal medals (100-meter breaststroke and 400 medley relay) at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
After bringing home the gold eight years ago, Jendrick is focused on repeating the feat once again.
“I don’t think anyone goes out there without expecting to win at this point,” Jendrick said. “It’s definitely going to be a challenge. I want to bring home the gold and defend my title in the 100-meter breaststroke from eight years ago.”
Jendrick is currently training in Palo Alto, Calif., at the Stanford University campus in preparation for her departure.
“Right now I’m training pretty hard. On July 25, I will leave for Singapore where I will be training for 10 days before I head to Beijing. When I’m in Singapore the workouts will taper down a bit. I will back off on the intensity of the workouts so I will be rested and relaxed when I compete on Aug. 10.”
2008 is a far cry from 2004 for the 24-year-old Jendrick. Even she didn’t envision swimming competitively again after just missing out on the Olympics four years ago.
“After I didn’t make the Olympic team at the 2004 trials, I retired from swimming,” she said. “About six months later I started coaching kids and that’s when I realized that I really missed the sport. It got me back into it. My husband (Nathan) talked me into coming back.”
For the past three years, Jendrick’s entire life has revolved around her rigorous workout regimen.
“Since June of 2005 I’ve been swimming three and a half hours a day, seven days a week,” Jendrick said. “Trying to make the Olympics is a full-time job in itself.
“It’s a whole different kind of lifestyle. It’s a lot of hard labor. There are no days off.”
Jendrick credits coach King County Aquatic Club coach Sean Hutchison for training her to be one of the best swimmers in the world.
“He’s an amazing coach. The King County Aquatic Club had 15 swimmers who competed in the Olympic trials,” Jendrick said. “That’s pretty amazing. Having that many competitive swimmers creates a high level of intensity at practices.”
Even though Jendrick’s life is centered upon swimming now, that wasn’t always the case.
“When I was 4 or 5 years old I was afraid to put my head under water when I was at swimming lessons,” Jendrick said. “My parents have property on Hood Canal at Dewatto Bay (Mason County) and they just kept encouraging me to swim. Pretty soon it just stuck. I joined my first swim team when I was 9 years old and have loved it ever since.”