Sunday, September 10, 2000
Swimmers live Olympic romance
Tristate couple on relay teams
By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Erin Phenix and Nate Dusing at the training center for the U.S. Olympic team in Pasadena, before leaving for Sydney.
(U.S. Swimming photo)
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First, start with young love, against the odds. Two swimmers date long distance, by phone and e-mail, finally reuniting in college. Then cast the All-American boy in the fight of his life, making the Olympics by an eyelash: one-hundredth of a second. Then have the quiet, shy girl — after she stops bawling for joy about her boyfriend — stun the swimming world by qualifying for the Games herself.
It's Nate Dusing and Erin Phenix in a real-life Hollywood script.
“It sure seems like it, doesn't it?” says Erin's mother, Laurie. “Not too many boyfriends and girlfriends get to go compete in the Olympics together.”
They are two of 13 Greater Cincinnati athletes in Sydney, and two of the best bets. Saturday, the first day of competition, Erin and her 400-meter freestyle relay teammates are expected to be wearing gold medals. Three days later, Nate's 800 free relay will likely net at least the silver.
A tender moment at the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis in June.
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They will have come a long way. A 15-hour flight to the other end of the Earth. A two-decade swim to the summit of their sport. And a 41/2-year romantic ride.
Two years apart made their reunion more romantic. They've been living less by lip-lock than by blinking cursors in the dark. It has been like one long, great, first date. “We've lasted this long because we didn't know each other,” Erin says.
They met as Cincinnati Marlins. He was 17, and had never had a serious relationship. She was 14, and had never had a date.
Feb. 9, 1996: Then a Covington Catholic junior, Nate picked up the Ursuline freshman and took her to dinner at Friday's. So far, so good. But they grew quiet at the video store.
“Both of us were really nervous,” says Erin, now 19. “We couldn't decide what to rent.”
They settled on Mad Love, a movie about teen-age emotional instability.
Nate's prom in 1998.
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Their feelings, by contrast, were founded on fun.
“We were just young kids,” says Nate, 21. “We didn't know if anything would come of it. But we just have fun together and are able to talk. We got attached to each other.”
They arrived from disparate directions.
Nate grew up in Villa Hills — one of four children. All won Kentucky state championships in their sports — Shelly and Angie in volleyball for Notre Dame Academy, Brad in football for CovCath. Nate was National High School Swimmer of the Year his senior year.
His mother, Judy, works in the Marlins' front office, and all his siblings swam at least recreationally. It was an active family, and Nate a social butterfly.
Erin was an only child growing up in Greenhills, and Laurie a single parent. Erin was into quiet excellence, winning 10 state championships but keeping to herself. She was accomplished but not nationally known.
A half-hour drive separated them, and their high school meets were in different states, so dating was limited. Often it was renting movies, playing Putt-Putt, hanging out with teammates. They went to CovCath proms in Nate's junior and senior years.
The hurdle
Then Nate left for college at the University of Texas. “I figured that would be it,” Judy says.
Says Laurie: “We went through a very emotional time. I was prepared to support Erin through the worst of it.”
Only, there wasn't one. Though Nate stayed at Texas each summer for training — coming home only for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and two week-long breaks — he and Erin kept love alive.
“He was busy and I was busy,” Erin says. “We'd talk in the middle of the week and then after the week. And we'd e-mail.
“Right after he left, it was hard. I had to readjust, do my own thing. In a way it sort of brought us closer. We cherished the time we had together.”
Erin flew to Austin on spring break her junior year. Nate flew home for Erin's senior prom.
Nate cautioned Erin against picking Texas just because of him. So did Laurie. So did Judy and Jim Dusing. But Texas felt right to her. It has helped her as a swimmer in ways evident only now.
Of course, it didn't hurt the relationship.
“The whole last year has been great,” Nate said. “We see each other now more than ever.
“And maybe the two years we had apart was helpful. I can just tell by her voice now when something's bothering her, just because of that time (dating by phone). It helps us get our feelings out.”
The Olympic chase
Nate had been an Olympic contender since winning a 100-meter butterfly national title in spring 1997. He is the American record-holder in the short-course 100 fly, a five-time NCAA champion, a 20-time All-American.
But approaching the Olympic Trials last month, his mastery of the 100 fly inexplicably vanished. He was improving in the 200 freestyle, but he was seeded just 13th in that event at the Trials.
Erin's odds looked much longer. She had knee surgery in April 1999 to repair torn ligaments, and it took all of her freshman season to get up to speed.
She had finished 27th in the 100 free at NCAA Championships this spring and wasn't among the top 50 seeds at Trials. But in three tuneup meets this summer, she felt her 100 getting stronger.
“We'd only talked about Nate making (the Olympics), because he'd always been up at the top,” Erin says. “After the middle of the summer, we started talking like, "What if I did make it?'”
Nate went first. He needed to finish among the top six in the 200 free to gain a spot on the 800 relay. (In relays in Sydney, the top two rest until the finals; the third- through sixth-place qualifiers swim preliminaries, with the two fastest splits returning for finals.)
Nate gambled by going all-out early and was third entering the last 50 meters. He tried to hold on. His arms felt like lead weights, the field closing. He didn't come up for air the last 8 meters.
Nate hit the wall and looked for the scoreboard. Sixth! Then his time: 1:48.99. Seventh-place finisher Ugur Taner went 1:49.00.
Erin broke down, blubbering. “It was ridiculous,” Nate says.
That was relief. Shock came later.
Erin's lifetime best in the 100 free had been 58.65 seconds, but she went 55.96 in the semifinals to place eighth — gaining the last finals berth by 0.06 seconds.
She had never been in the finals of a senior national event, yet she now found herself in the same race as Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres and Amy Van Dyken. They had no idea who she was.
Then Erin swam a 55.61, more than three seconds better than her pre-meet best, and she was their Olympic teammate. She finished sixth — like Nate, grabbing the last relay spot.
Nate let her soak in the moment — more tears — before celebrating with her.
“I know she didn't want me to go to Australia without her,” he says. “Maybe that was her motivation.”
A golden future
Nate is three semesters shy of a marketing degree and has tentative plans to swim until the summer of 2002. Erin has designs on physical therapy school and can't guess at the length of her swimming career.
For now, there is the dream-come-true to attend to: Erin swims Saturday morning (that's Friday night here), Nate three days later.
Then, a long-awaited vacation — nearly three weeks to enjoy the rest of the Games, sightsee, relax. Swimming has taken Nate to Japan, Sweden and France, but Erin had never earned a trip abroad.
“We've never had time to get away, because we were always swimming,” Nate says. “We're both taking a semester off of school. We're going to stay until the seventh (of October). We'll see how far our money goes.”
There remains the marriage question. Best friends and high school sweethearts can marry. It's no longer shot than making the Olympics together.
“We're way too young (to think of that),” Nate said. “But we have definitely grown on each other.
“It's fun. We take it day by day, and it turns into year by year. We just take it as it comes.”
It's a love story, Cincinnati to Sydney.
One worth rooting for.
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