Being in the Pool Is Just Plain Irritating

INDIANAPOLIS, July 31 -- Some of the best swimmers in the United States looked and sounded like sick preschoolers Tuesday at the national championships. They coughed. They gasped for breath. They rubbed their red, watery eyes.

On the first day of the meet, poor air circulation made the Indiana University Natatorium an unpleasant place to swim, athletes said. Chlorine hung thick above the pool because of a ventilation problem, which meet officials said they would work to solve. Swimmers suffered through slow times and breathing problems at one of the sport's best facilities during one of the year's biggest meets.

In the morning session Tuesday, most swimmers avoided warming up in the championship pool because of the chlorine. Swimmers crowded into a small warmup pool to pace through their laps. After races in the championship pool, they emerged from the water with headaches and red eyes, some swimmers said.

"A lot of people say this is the house of champions, but to me it's the house of doom," said Brendan Hansen, who won the 200-meter breaststroke in 2 minutes 9.91 seconds. "If you go in that pool for 10 minutes, it kills you. Right now, I can't breathe in deep because I know I'll cough."

Hansen said he felt he swam well during the 200 breaststroke, in which he holds the world record. He touched the wall after what felt like a tactically perfect swim -- maybe even a record-breaking one. But he looked up at the scoreboard and saw that he had missed his best time by almost two seconds.

An hour later, distance swimmer Kate Ziegler suffered a similar fate. She won the 800-meter freestyle, but emerged from the pool more gassed than usual.

"I have asthma already, so I definitely noticed," Ziegler said. "It was like, 'Ah, I can't even breathe.' "

Said Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps's coach: "It's not the best. The longer you're in here, the more you can tell. But, you know, everybody's under the same conditions. I don't know that it's anything all that debilitating. It's just irritating."

Phelps Gets Started

Phelps swam his first event in what he plans to make a busy week. He swam the 200-meter breaststroke -- "a for-fun event," he calls it -- and finished 11th. Phelps will swim the 200 backstroke and the 400 freestyle relay Wednesday. He plans to compete in at least two events each day during the national championships.

"It's busy," he said, "but you know me. I kind of like busy."