U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMING TRIALS WATER PRESSURE

At the Olympics four years ago, Katie Hoff was 15 and she was kind of nervous.

After winning the 200-meter individual medley and the 400 IM at the U.S. trials, Hoff choked and bombed at Athens.

In the 400 IM prelims, she hyperventi

lated, swam a terrible time, climbed out of the pool and barfed on the deck.

She was a nervous seventh in the 200, but

didn't upchuck.

Now Hoff is older, tougher, and ready to make all the other swimmers ill.

She has taken on a Phelpsian challenge, aiming for eight gold medals in Beijing - six individual and two relay (with an outside shot at

a berth on the medley relay). Her remaining races here are the 100-meter freestyle (Friday) and the 800-meter freestyle (Saturday

).

On Wednesday night, Hoff nailed down her third and fourth wins of the trials. She won the 200-meter freestyle in an American record, 1 minute, 55.88 seconds. Then Hoff won the 200-meter individual medley, beating Natalie Coughlin.

You remember Natalie Coughlin, the reigning queen of swimming, with five medals (two gold) at Athens?

Coughlin is still in business, she has a first and a second here and is favored to win the 100-freestyle Friday, putting her in three individual events and three relays. And she's a proven gamer at a mature age 25, so her Olympic results could be sensational.

But if Hoff has matured these last four years and learned to handle the big-time pressure, we could be looking at a queen.

And there hasn't been the slightest sign that Hoff isn't ready to run away from everyone else in women's swimming.

It's freaky that the greatest male swimmer ever (Phelps) and maybe-to-be the greatest woman swimmer ever (Hoff) are from the same 'hood, North Baltimore. Talk about your small world.

I wondered if Phelps and Hoff, former teammates on North Baltimore Aquatic Club, are pals. Do they inspire each other, communicate with each other as the only two beings on Planet Swim? Kind of like the relationship between Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam?

Hoff's answer to that query (worded more smoothly) was so vague that I'm still not sure if she even knows Phelps.

Hoff isn't a quote machine. Which doesn't make her a bad person, but it doesn't reveal much.

All we can judge Hoff by is her swims, which increasingly boggle the mind, especially when you lump them together at a big meet.

It's one thing to win two or three races. To tackle the load that Phelps and Hoff handle is sheer lunacy. Not to mention impossible versatility. Winning the 100-200-400-800 frees is like a track runner winning everything from the 220 to the mile. Just not done.

(Although Shirley Babashoff won all four at the trials in '76, before getting aced at the Olympics by drug-pumped East German robo-women.)

For Hoff to translate her glory here to the water in Beijing, she'll have to conquer that stage-fright thing, and she believes she has.

"Four years ago, I hadn't really experienced big-time (international) competition at all," Hoff said Wednesday night. "I still get just as nervous, but I've learned to control it."

Example: Wednesday's IM, though not an as big as an Olympic race, was huge for Hoff. She hasn't raced Coughlin for several years, and never in a race this big. And Coughlin is Coughlin, a cool and intimidating force, who last month stole Hoff's American record in the event. Hoff handled it well. Good swim, no barf.

"The 200 IM has always been kind of a tough race for me," Hoff said. "It's always been considered my (best) event, so I always get really, really nervous for it. Tonight I was nervous, but I was trying to relax and have fun."

Hoff, who was born at Stanford - her mom, Jeanne Ruark, was a Stanford basketball player from 1979 to '83 and set the school career scoring record (now No. 5 on the list) - has developed her swim skills in Baltimore, in the same program that developed Phelps.

It's a program that stresses the 400 IM as the core building block, and puts an emphasis on heavy meet workloads.

"Katie is a product of 10 years of development," said Bob Bowman, Phelps' coach.

What has developed in Hoff is a crazy combo of speed and distance, the speed being the most recent element to click.

"I haven't seen any muscle biopsies of Katie or Michael," said Eddie Reese, head coach of the U.S. men's team, "but I suspect they both have a perfect combination of fast-twitch and slow-twitch fibers. ... If you train more one way or the other (speed or distance), you can recruit neural fibers from one area (thus upsetting the balance between fast-twitch and slow-twitch)."

What's most important now is that Hoff apparently has gained control over her no-twitch fibers.

Oh, and when someone pointed out that Hoff will swim more yardage here than Phelps, Hoff said, "That gives me some ammunition against him when he bugs me."

So apparently they do know each other.

Tonight's best

Men's 100-meter freestyle: Grizzled vet (age 32) Jason Lezak (relay Olympic golds in 2000 and '04) has the fastest qualifying time, but watch out for 6-foot-8 Matt Grevers, superstar Ryan Lochte, and S.F. native son Ben Wildman-Tobriner.

Women's 200-meter butterfly: Kim Vandenberg, pride of the East Bay (Campolindo High, then UCLA) came into the meet seeded first, qualified fourth Wednesday. After an exciting night Wednesday, she should be ready to roll.

Wednesday's winners

MEN

100 freestyle: Michael Phelps, 1:52.20

WOMEN

200 freestyle: Katie Hoff, 1:55.88

200 individual medley: Katie Hoff, 2:09.71