Katie Hoff struggles with post-Olympic changes in and out of pool

Hoff fails to qualify for world swim championships

INDIANAPOLIS — These are tough times for Katie Hoff. Nearly a year after winning three medals — none gold — at the Beijing Olympics, Hoff has changed coaches, altered her stroke, gotten sick and, worst of all, slowed down.

The 20-year-old swimmer failed to qualify this week for the world championships, where she piled up gold in 2005 and 2007.

Hoff finished last in the 200-meter freestyle at U.S. nationals with a time of 1 minute, 59.59 seconds — 3.81 seconds slower than the American record she set in Beijing.

She was sixth in the 400 free in 4:12.34 — a whopping 10.14 seconds off the American record she set in February 2008.

After those discouraging results, Hoff dropped out of the 100 and 800 freestyles.

“That is tough to do, stand up at an event like this with a lot of expectations on you and you’re not at your best and just give what you got,” her new coach Bob Bowman said. “It was a valiant effort on her part.”

For the first time since the 2004 Olympics — when she was the youngest U.S. Olympian in Athens — Hoff will miss a major international meet.

“It’s been the hardest year of my life,” she said.

She hasn’t set any personal bests since last August.

“Even Janet Evans had years where she wasn’t on,” she said. “This has been a huge, huge transition year for me. Everything I’ve done has been completely different.”

After the Olympics, Hoff switched coaches, going from low-key Paul Yetter to hard-charging Bowman, who trains Michael Phelps at the same North Baltimore club. Hoff qualified for five individual events in Beijing, drawing comparisons to Phelps, who won a record eight golds.

She earned a silver medal in the 400 free, and bronze medals in the 400 IM and 800 freestyle relay. She finished off the medals podium in the 200 free and 200 IM. Hardly a poor showing, but not up to the golden expectations heaped on her slim shoulders.

Hoff still gets asked about what happened in Beijing.

“I honestly think she’s kind of at peace with it but I don’t know if everybody else is,” Bowman said. “I think she can come back and swim her best times, but she’s got to get herself to a place where that can happen.”

At 20, Hoff is transitioning from being a speedy teenager with laser-like focus on swimming to a young woman who knows there is a life beyond breathing chlorine fumes and staring at the black line on the bottom of a pool every day.

Unlike veterans Phelps, Natalie Coughlin and Ryan Lochte, Hoff didn’t take much time off after the Olympics.

“It would’ve been nice,” she said wistfully.

She plunged into college classes in Baltimore and moved out on her own while continuing to train and build a social life outside swimming. She has a boyfriend and sponsor commitments she must fulfill regardless of her race results.

“She’s going to have to decide if she really has a passion to do this. Unlike Michael, who’s had his ups and downs and then sort of realized his goals at the key time, she’s sort of twice now not done that,” said Bowman, known for his demanding training methods.

Until March, Bowman thought he had Hoff on the right track. Then she got sick after training with the Navy Seals in San Diego, and became entrapped in a cycle of feeling poorly, not always practicing well and losing races.

“Everyone’s not Michael Phelps,” she said. “He seems to be able to handle a lot of different types of sets and weights, and I don’t know how he does it, but my body doesn’t work the same way.”

Phelps has offered his ear if Hoff wants to vent about Bowman, whom he’s known since he was 7. But it’s not her nature to complain, unlike Phelps who doesn’t hesitate to tell Bowman when he’s fed up.

“Bob can be forceful at times, sometimes intimidating,” he said. “She’s coming along, she’s getting a lot better. It’s still a trial year and she’ll be better in years to come.”

Mark Schubert, head coach and general manager of the U.S. national team, has seen swimmers over the years struggle the way Hoff is now.

“Everybody can have a down year over a long career,” he said. “She’s pretty much been on top with our national team since she was 14. I think she will bounce back. She just has to get some things straightened out. I don’t think she’s 100 percent physically.”

Three weeks ago, a virus prevented Hoff from competing at a meet in Santa Clara, Calif. She needed a week to rest and recover, and Bowman said the time off was a setback.

“I thought about possibly not coming here to be honest,” she said, “but I started getting better and better in practice and I didn’t want to be a quitter. I wanted to give it a shot.”

Phelps treats Hoff like a kid sister, and he describes her slump “like a little bump in the road.”

“She’s going to get through,” he said. “It’s probably not easy, but I think she’s learned a lot about herself over the last year and that’s going to help her in the future.”

Hoff isn’t the only veteran American who won’t be in Rome. Kate Ziegler swept the 800 and 1,500 freestyles at the 2007 worlds in Melbourne, but she was too sick to even attend nationals and attempt to qualify.