Troxel to swim at U.S. Olympic swimming trials

When Jackson High School graduate Steffan Troxel competes in the 1,500-meter freestyle today at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, he is certainly a long shot to place.

His seed time of 15 minutes, 47.77 seconds ranks him 47th best among the 77 swimmers in the event. Two swimmers have covered the distance a whole minute faster than him.

Still, Troxel, 21, is excited to see how well he can compete. He has been waiting for the opportunity for 14 years.

"I've been swimming since I was about 7 years old, and this is always something I've really wanted to do ever since then -- just to get to the Olympic trials and to compete against the best in America and really the best in the world," Troxel said.

Troxel, once a member of the Gators Swim Team, is entering his senior year at Indiana University. He's a member of the Hoosiers program that finished second in the Big Ten meet this past season. His year-round training in the sport only lets him visit his family in Fruitland a few days each year. His dedication, however, is paying off.

He will swim in the men's 1,500 preliminaries today in Omaha, Neb. The finals will take place Sunday. At stake is a trip to compete in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

"[Swimming] is a commitment he makes," his mother Sherrie Troxel said, "The best way to describe it would be a passion.

"This was his goal -- to get to the Olympic trials -- when he was in high school. He's just positive and excited because he's going to get to go and do this."

A pool of passion

Steffan started swimming to help rehabilitate a broken elbow he suffered when he tripped jumping over a hurdle competing in track.

Swimming soon took priority over the other two sports that he was interested in at the time -- Tee-ball and track.

Matthew Troxel, Steffan's dad, still remembers bringing Steffan to join the Jackson swim team.

"The swim coach at the time told us he could be on team if he swam across the pool," Matthew said. "I remember we talked to Steffan and he was a 7 year old and he really wanted to try it. I remember he got in the water and struggled and struggled and kicked and paddled and I don't know how long it took, but he finally got across the pool.

"We talked to Steffan again so he wanted to do it. At that point there was really no looking back. By the end of the season he was placing."

Troxel began swimming year-round when he joined the Gators at 10. By high school -- although Jackson High School didn't have a swim team -- he was practicing sometimes twice each day. His senior year he was swimming approximately three to four mornings each week between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. in addition to training two hours each day after school.

"[Before] he could drive he'd come and get me up," Sherrie said about the early morning sessions. "If he ever complained about it I could've crawled right back in bed. That was no problem. It would be a very quiet ride to the pool, and then when he'd get out he'd say, 'Thanks Mom.'"

When the time came when Steffan was deciding on a college his passion for swimming helped him choose.

Matthew said when his son returned home from visiting colleges, including Ivy League schools, Steffan informed his parents Indiana was the school that he wanted to attend because it had the a best swim program of all the schools on his list.

"He wanted to go where they could make him the best swimmer he could be," Matthewsaid.

Steffan, who is on an academic scholarship to Indiana, has competed in the 2005 World championship trials, 2006 USA National Championships, the 2007 USA National Championships and three Big Ten meets. He said he thinks the U.S. Olympic trials is his biggest competition yet.

Steffan said Indiana practices approximately 30 hours each week, including some dryland training.

"At the peak hours of the season we're doing anywhere from 80 to 100,000 yards a week in the pool, which I mean, that's like miles upon miles," Steffan said.

"I'm not one of the faster swimmers maybe in the Big Ten, but I wanted to compete with the best and I wanted to train with the best," he added.

Steffan is not the lone member of his Indiana team on a mission for a spot on the Olympic team. Fifteen others from the program are competing at the trials.

"We've all made the same commitment that we're going to stay here [at Indiana], we're going to train year-round and we're going to see how good at this sport we can get in our four years here," he said. "And we just feed off each other all the time in practice to do the best we can and to put in 100 percent."

Swimming Future

Troxel plans to attend law school after his expected graduation from Indiana in the spring 2009.

He doesn't know whether he will stop competing in swimming once he leaves Indiana. He said it's difficult to say at this point.

He said he wants to end on a high note.

Right now Troxel is just looking at the U.S. Olympic trials.

Erik Vendt is the top seed with a time of 14:46.78, Larsen Jensen comes with the second fastest seed time (14:47.58). Peter Vanderkaay has the third best time (14:52.56).

"It's not like I'm a favorite to make the team," he said. "I'm anything but. I'm going to go there. I'm going to have fun. I'm going to enjoy being part of the moment and see what I can do."