By Dave Krider
MaxPreps.com
A near miss at the recent Beijing, China Olympics motivates Elizabeth Beisel every day to work tirelessly toward winning a gold medal at London, England, in 2012.
Despite being the youngest member of the USA swim team – at age 15 – Beisel placed fourth in the 400-meter individual medley in 4:34.24. The gold- and silver-medal finishers both bested the world record of 4:31.12 by Katie Hoff and Hoff placed third in 4:31.71 to take the bronze medal. Beisel, a junior at North Kingstown (R.I.), also placed fifth in the 200-meter backstroke in 2:08.23.
After resting for three weeks (her first time out of the pool in two years), Beisel told MaxPreps, “I’m hungry. I definitely want to make it in 2012. I’m working on more yardage. When I’m training hard, I’ll do about 8,000 yards a day. I probably will start lifting weights on a regular basis and I’ll do more running – cardio stuff.”
It wasn’t until this past year that Beisel became completely focused on her swimming career. After all, she has many interests and was looked at as somewhat of a child prodigy. She took ballet for six years, has been surfing since age 10 and has been playing the violin since age six. As a freshman, she was first-chair All-State as a violinist. She also has a bubbly personality, is a top student (3.6 GPA) and is highly competitive.
Beisel is a member of the Bluefish Swim Club in Attleboro, Mass., and coach Chuck Batchelor sat her down a year ago for a serious talk, which probably was most responsible for her becoming a surprise Olympian.
He told her, “I could allow you to be silly and be your age, or you can step up your focus and pay attention to a lot more details. You can make all your decisions (eating, sleeping, dating, etc.) based on a swimming career.
“Three years ago she was absolutely the worst doing exercises outside of the pool. Now she is the best. She still has a lot of room to improve, so I believe she definitely is going to get faster.”
A growth spurt of six inches over the past three years also was important, bringing Beisel out of the “tiny” category into a more powerful, 5-foot-7 frame.
Though his young star was a darkhorse at best, Batchelor still “felt it was possible” for her to make the Olympic team. “Each season she got better and, all of a sudden, it was a reality.”
Beisel actually had qualified to swim in 11 of the 13 events at the Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb. She chose to swim in five of those events over a seven-day period.
“Probably some of the best coaching I’ve done in my life,” Batchelor noted, “was talking to her outside of the pool. Right before the trials, I told her, ‘This doesn’t matter. You have done a phenomenal job. No one can take that away.’ It took some pressure off her.”
Beisel confided, “I knew I had a chance, but I wasn’t going to expect anything. Being named to the Olympic team was really a big surprise.”
The 400 IM was not her best event, but she pointed out, “I had been working on all four of my strokes. Over the course of this past year, I had been dropping a lot of time.” She was seeded second in the trials and did place second in 4:32.87. In her specialty, the 200-meter backstroke, she was seeded fifth, but also took second in 2:06.92 – her best time ever. In both races, she lost to women who set world records.
Still awed by her accomplishment, Beisel then went through two weeks of training camp at Stanford University. “They were great and certainly didn’t treat me like I was 15 years old,” she noted. “It definitely was tough because Chuck wasn’t there (except for a few days). He’s definitely motivational. He’s always there beside you on hard sets. He’s such a good guy.”
Arriving in Beijing on Aug. 3, Beisel had six days to prepare for her first event. There was absolutely no time to be a tourist. She swam between one and one-half hours per day and had to deal with such other things as weather, bus schedules and food. Happiness included a McDonald’s restaurant and forks – instead of chop sticks.
When she finally hit the water in the 400 IM preliminaries, she surprised the field with a first-place time of 4:34.55. Showing great maturity, she said, “I don’t think it (the pressure of being top-seeded) affected me that much, because I knew a lot of them were saving up for the finals.”
Beisel admitted that finishing fourth in the 400 IM finals the following day was “obviously disappointing because I didn’t have my best time or get a medal. But I was just happy to be there.” Back home “everybody went nuts, especially since Rhode Island is such a small community. I got a lot of text messages.”
Her mother (Joanie) and brother (Danny) were watching in person, while her father (Ted) joined friends and family back home to watch on a big-screen TV.
The 200-meter backstroke was broken down into three rounds. She took it easy the first day and finished fifth. In the semifinals she placed second, then she was fifth in the finals. This time she stressed, “I definitely was disappointed, because my best time would have been (good enough for) the bronze medal. But it was such a great experience that I can’t complain.”
A “moment” with Olympic hero Michael Phelps also will linger in Beisel’s memory for a long time. He hollered, “Beisel, get off my towel,” in a good-natured way. “I sat on his towel,” she admitted. “He gave me some crap for it and I gave him a joke back.”
She left immediately for home and arrived on her 16th birthday. Close to 40 family members and friends greeted her at the airport with balloons and a big celebration followed.
Ironically, she didn’t immediately like swimming as a youngster because she “hated to get into cold water.”
Elizabeth’s mother, Joanie Beisel, is grateful for the sport – even though it has been responsible for many family sacrifices over the years. “We called her ‘Fuss’ because she never would take a nap,” Joanie related. “That’s one of the reasons we took her to the family swim, because she would (get tired enough to) take a nap.”
However, Elizabeth quickly “warmed up” to the sport and began competing at age five with the Rams Swim Club of Kingston. At age seven, she won the 8-and-under New England Championships in the 25-yard butterfly. At age 10 – now competing for the Bluefish Swim Club in Attleboro, Mass. – she set an amazing seven national age-group records. At age 11, she won the Junior Nationals in the 200-meter backstroke.
At age 12 Beisel made her first Olympic Trials cut, going 2:17 in the 200-meter backstroke during the World Championship trials in Indianapolis, Ind. She pointed out, “That was the first meet I ever saw Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin compete in. I was like a deer in the headlights.”
That same year she broke four national records during three days at the Junior Nationals in Irvine, Calif.
“I kept getting better and better and that motivated me to get faster,” she conceded.
At age 13, she came under the tutelage of Chuck Batchelor, who was captivated by “how she interacted with the other kids and adults. I was really taken by her personality more than anything. She was really having a blast. She walked onto the pool deck like it was her home. I was excited about her potential and the opportunity to work with her. I had to constantly remind myself that even though she swam like a 20-year-old, she still was just 13,” he admitted.
As a 13-year-old – competing against much older swimmers in the Senior Nationals – Beisel was second in the 200-meter backstroke, placing her on the Pan-Pacific National Team. She finished fifth in the meet later that summer in Canada. She also qualified for the World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, where she placed 12th in the 200-meter backstroke at age 14.
Batchelor demanded a lot and Beisel gave a lot, even in her early teens. She practiced every day in Attleboro, a 45-minute drive for her mother. Batchelor recalled, “She’d be in the car at 6 a.m., honking the horn and telling her parents to ‘Hurry up and take me to practice.’ I’m sure the neighbors loved that,” he laughed.
Today Batchelor says, “She never complains about anything I ask her to do. She races hard – as if it was life and death. She knows she can’t beat Michael Phelps, but she wouldn’t back down from a challenge. She has a fearlessness. Athletes get afraid of failure, but it doesn’t even enter her mind.”
Despite her demanding club schedule, Beisel began competing for North Kingstown High School as a freshman. Coach Jillian Oresman, who first saw Beisel while she was in college, observed, “She always stood out in a crowd. She has a natural feel for the water. She just has that drive and loves to win. She laughs, but as soon as she steps up to the block, she is a different person. She has exceeded all expectations. She has so many friends and is going to be a celebrity forever.”
Throughout her freshman year, Beisel broke state records in the 100- and 500-yard freestyle, the 200-yard IM and the 100-yard backstroke. At the state meet she won the 500 and 100 freestyle events in record times.
As a sophomore she set state records in the 100-yard butterfly (regular season), 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke – the latter two at the state meet. She also swam on two relays which won state championships. North Kingstown’s third-year varsity placed third in the state and it still doesn’t have its own pool.
So, she continues to work out from 7-9 a.m. and 3-5 p.m. on non-school days. On school days, she works out from 4:45-7:45 p.m. Every day she’s up at 6:30 a.m. Her parents continue to drive her to Attleboro (she does not practice with her high school team). The family has been building its vacations around her swimming for a long time. The last true vacation she remembers was a trip to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., eight years ago.
Joanie Beisel revealed that the 80-mile round trip over the past six years was mainly responsible for putting 200,000 miles on her car. Less than a year ago she bought a new car and it already has 30,000 miles. The good news is that Elizabeth “does her homework in the car. She is exhausted and goes to bed as soon as we get home.”
Will she ever face burnout? “At times I get a little tired of it,” she confessed. “Just having teammates with me helps get me through. The only reason I swim is because I love it. I’m definitely going to get beat,” she added philosophically. “I’m not going to win every race. That’s good for competition – making them go faster.”
Her major goal for next summer is to qualify for the World Championships in Rome, Italy. The trials will be held in July. She also wants to swim in college and at this time lists Texas, Florida and California as her favorites.
Knowing the next Olympic Games are still far away, Batchelor says, “She’s ahead of where the women were four years ago. I certainly believe she can (win in 2012). I have tremendous confidence in her. Her future is brighter for not medalling. She is very hungry to get back and do better.”
