Katie Hoff swimming fast and smiling again on road to 2012 Olympics

Katie Hoff swimming fast and smiling again

IRVINE, Calif. — Katie Hoff is feeling good about swimming again.

After a rough Beijing Olympics, at which she failed to win gold, Hoff didn’t qualify for last year’s world championships while fighting a respiratory illness.

Having hit rock bottom, she moved cross-country, changed coaches for the third time and is testing herself at this week’s U.S. national championships.

The two-time Olympian is coming off a strong showing at last month’s Los Angeles Grand Prix in which she won the 200- and 400-meter freestyles.

“Being able to have the times that I did going into this meet kicks it off in a great way for me,” she said. “I don’t think I’d be in as great a state as I am right now if I hadn’t had that kind of breakthrough meet.”

Hoff qualified fastest in Tuesday’s prelims of the 400 free, in which she owns the world record. She was to swim the final in the evening.

Earlier in the day, Hoff skipped the 200 individual medley heats to focus on the 200 backstroke on Friday. She’s also entered in the 100 and 200 freestyles.

Hoff doesn’t think she’ll swim her signature event, the 400 IM, which represents her other world record.

“That’s still one race that just really fills me with dread and makes me not enjoy the meet,” she said, laughing.

Hoff’s biggest goal this week is to qualify for the Pan Pacific championships later this month in Irvine and to earn a spot on the team for the 2011 world meet in China. That would set the stage leading to the 2012 London Olympics.

Hoff is facing everything these days with a smile. The 21-year-old swimmer laughs easily on the pool deck, a change from her demeanor in 2008.

She was projected to win three gold and three silver medals in Beijing, but came away with a silver and two bronzes.

After the games, she switched from her longtime North Baltimore Aquatic Club coach Paul Yetter to Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps’ coach at the same club. But it wasn’t a good fit.

Bowman’s hard-driving ways, which have worked so famously for Phelps, didn’t mesh with Hoff’s low-key nature. He wanted her lifting heavy weights for the first time in her career, and Hoff balked. She soon felt beaten down and grew increasingly discouraged when her performances failed to back up what she’d done in practice.

Failing to earn a trip to Rome for last summer’s world championships proved the final straw. Hoff made a major move, leaving her family and friends behind in Baltimore and hitting the road to train in Fullerton, Calif., with Sean Hutchison.

She’s not the only big name at USA Swimming’s newest professional and post-graduate training center. World champion Ariana Kukors and Olympians Caroline Burckle, Margaret Hoelzer and Kara Lynn Joyce are there, too.

“I don’t really take anything back. As difficult as last year was, I learned a lot about myself and about what works for me,” Hoff said. “I don’t think I would’ve known until I tried it. I’ve grown a lot, I’m a completely different person than I was in 2008.”

Hoff has developed a life away from the pool, too. She’s a student at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., where she’s moving to from Newport Beach. She and Burckle, who shared the Newport digs until recently, frequently tweet about their doings around Los Angeles.

With two years remaining to London, Hoff is focusing on more than just the black line on the bottom of the pool.

“I’ve learned a lot about what works for me and what I kind of need to do to take the next step,” she said.