Kicking quietly through the water

In his first finals race-the 100-meter backstroke-of the Missouri Grand Prix back in February, Nick Thoman sped down the pool on his first lap in 27.49 seconds. Thoman's feet smacked the wall at the race's midpoint nearly three-tenths of a second ahead of Ryan Lochte, the Olympic gold medalist and world record holder at the 200-meter distance.

Lochte overtook Thoman with a blazing second half, but it was an inspiring swim-and the first of two medal performances at the meet-for one of swimming's brightest up-and-comers.

Thoman has made a habit of sneaking up on people.

This week, Thoman hopes he will sneak onto the U.S. world team.

He will compete in the 2009 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships and World Championship Trials this week in Indianapolis as the third seed in both the 100 back and 200 back. The 100 back finals are Wednesday night and the 200 finals are Saturday. The world championships will be held in Rome later this month.

Thoman began his attack on the big stage last summer. Thoman had finished sixth at the Olympic Trials in the 100 back with a personal-best time of 53.79, and he also came in fifth in the 200 back. A month later, he competed in the U.S. Open, the annual event that served in 2008 as a sort of consolatory meet for swimmers who fell short of qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team.

At the U.S. Open, Thoman's time got faster-much faster. In the 100, Thoman touched in 52.92. Not only had he dropped nearly a full second from his Trials time-a feat in itself-he had come within three hundredths of a second of Aaron Peirsol's then-world record. (Peirsol would drop the record to 52.54 in his Olympic final 11 days later.)

Thoman, who had been hoping to drop a couple tenths of a second from his time at the Trials, was as surprised as the swimming world.

"I just knew I was going a lot faster than I had ever gone before," Thoman said. "I had no idea that it would be that fast. I looked up at the clock, and there are pictures of me where my face is just..." Thoman pauses, searching for the right word, then smiles with relish. "Flabbergasted."

"I was like, is that 53.9? I hope not. Oh, wait a minute!" said Thoman, chuckling at the memory. "But honestly, about 20 minutes after the race my coach asked me if I wanted to swim it again the next day to see if I could go faster. And right then it hit me that it was fast, and I was hoping it wasn't a fluke, just because sometimes it's a great race and you just can't repeat that performance. Honestly, the next day I was more nervous about it than the day that I did it."

He couldn't help but think what might have been.

"My Trials time was my best time to that point, and I was excited about it," Thoman said. "You know, hindsight being 20/20, maybe I wish I had gone faster a month earlier, but that's not the way it works. And I was excited - I am excited with what I went."

Thoman's swim immediately catapulted him to the upper reaches of the swimming stratosphere; a place previously inhabited by 100-back experts like Peirsol, Lochte, Olympic silver medalist Matt Grevers and even Michael Phelps. That's been an ongoing adjustment even for an accomplished swimmer like Thoman.

"I was just thinking about that before race (in Missouri)," Thoman said. "There was a little more pressure than I was used to because, I mean, I was the actual top seed at a meet. I don't think I'd ever done that at a meet like this before or been that at a meet like this before. It was exciting, a little nerve-wracking because I'm not in the best shape yet."

He knows he'll have to beat out Peirsol, Grevers, Lochte and all the rest of a talented field to nab a spot on a capable American team. The weight of that statement isn't lost on Thoman.

"It is a new experience, but I never really thought of myself as the same caliber as them before," said Thoman, adding that he still doesn't. "I think that I'm still an up-and-comer, and I still have a lot to prove since I've only done that at one meet so far. I've got leaps and bounds to go before I prove myself, at least to myself."

Thoman got into swimming almost accidentally. As a 4-year-old, he grew tired of watching his 6-year-old sister's swim practices and asked his mom if he could get in the water. He hasn't stopped ever since.

"I don't love getting up early in the morning, and I don't love smelling like chlorine all the time, but there's something about training hard and getting your body in shape and swimming fast - it's kind of addictive, and I love it," Thoman says. "I wouldn't have it any other way right now."

Thoman didn't fully blossom as a swimmer until his senior year of high school, when he became one of the top high school backstrokers in the country. After being recruited by NCAA power Arizona, Thoman headed to Tucson to train with coach Frank Bush. Having not been a "top dog" in high school, Thoman found himself at college and larger meets experiencing a whole new side of swimming.

"The '04 (Olympic) Trials were just a complete culture shock," Thoman said. "It was my first huge meet. I had been to nationals before, but I had never been to anything with the spectacle and with that many elite athletes like the Olympic Trials in '04. I was there for the experience. I swam my best time, and I got 18th place, and I was excited with that at that time.

"So that was a good way to get into college swimming, just because it got me out there and got me into the national scene so I could see what it was all about. College swimming was an easy transition then because I had already been there, done that, and it was just another big meet."

Thoman went on to become a five-time All-American at Arizona before leaving to train with the Longhorn Aquatics club team in Austin, Texas. Thoman has since switched from Longhorn Aquatics to Clearwater Aquatic Team in Florida and now to North Baltimore Aquatic Club, home of Phelps, two-time Olympian Katie Hoff and their coach Bob Bowman.

"He's really receptive to coaching, which is good," Bowman said. "He's willing to work. And, you know, the bottom line is right now he's just not in very good shape. We can easily take care of that - well, not easily, but we can take care of that over time."

As for whether Thoman can get back down to his Open time, Bowman is optimistic. "I hope," he said. "That's my job. That's what he hired me to do. "I'd like to see him get down to his best times. If he does that, we'll be in good shape. Nick can be competitive on the world level."

With the quality of swimming Thoman has demonstrated over the past year, including two silver medals at the Austin Grand Prix and revenge over Lochte at the Charlotte UltraSwim, Thoman's standards for himself may prove even higher than what the swimming world now expects from him.

"I'm trying to show that I didn't just have one good meet, that I can actually do better than I have done," Thoman says. "I'm really hoping now just to get my name out."

Consider it out.

Thoman won't be sneaking up on anyone any time soon.

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc. Brett Knight is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.