Olympic spot only fuels his desire

With an Olympic spot secured, breaststroker Brendan Hansen now has his eye on Japanese archrival and two-time gold medalist Kosuke Kitajima, who took down Hansen's world record in the 200 meters last month. (Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)

OMAHA - Brendan Hansen began thinking about Beijing as soon as he pulled himself out of the pool in Athens. Three unsatisfying minutes had provided enough motivational fuel for another four years. "When I left, I felt like I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder," America's best breaststroker said.

That chip was as big as the Acropolis. Hansen had gone to the 2004 Games as the global record-holder in the 100 and 200 meters and left with a silver and a bronze. Worse, he had to stand next to Japanese archrival Kosuke Kitajima and watch the Rising Sun rise twice above the Stars and Stripes.

Hansen could not allow that to be his enduring Olympic memory. He took six weeks off, jumped back in the pool, and would have frog-kicked his way to China if he had had to. That's how it felt to him last night, as Hansen earned his way back to the Games, if in workmanlike fashion.

"Best way to put it, I felt like I bench-pressed the 100 breaststroke," said Hansen, after he had held off Athens wingman Mark Gangloff by less than half a second in 59.93, eight- 10ths off his own global mark and only the sixth-fastest time in the world this year.

Four years ago in Long Beach, Hansen had sent a message to Kitajima and the rest of the planet, taking down his rival's world mark by nearly half a second. "What do you want to say to Kitajima?" he was asked last night. "I don't want to say anything to him," Hansen replied. "Next question."

Kitajima still is his Darth Vader, the man he'll have to beat in Beijing. If there was even a tiny chance he needed a reminder, it came when his cellphone rang as Hansen was sitting down to a stack of Sunday pancakes last month. Sorry to ruin your day, his father said, but Kitajima had just broken Hansen's 200 breast record by nearly a second (2:07.51) in Tokyo.

"It was like a switch went on," said Hansen, who had owned the mark since 2004. "Like a burner underneath my butt. A fire just blew up in me. I look at those records as my baby. When you lose your baby, you're damn well going to try to find a way to get it back."

Even if it meant changing to a new brand of suit. Kitajima had switched from Mizuno to Speedo's LZR Racer and abducted Hansen's baby. Hansen has an endorsement deal with Nike, which outfits him right down to his underwear. Was he suddenly in the wrong suit?

Nike suspected he might be, which is why the company gave Hansen, backstroker Aaron Peirsol, and its four other contract swimmers the option of using any suit they pleased at the trials. Hansen isn't a suit fetishist. He thinks talent and training matter most. But in a sport where medals are determined by finger-length margins, a faster suit can make the difference.

"When I was 8 years old, I had a pair of Nike shoes," said Hansen, "and I thought I could run faster and jump higher." Was it a coincidence that LZR wearers have set 42 of this year's 46 world records? Was it because they felt they were wearing magic skin?

Psychology is a huge factor in swimming, which is why Michael Phelps hates to lose even a preliminary heat. "If you feel at any point that you're inferior to the person you're racing," said Hansen, "you're beaten before you start."

So Hansen experimented with every other suit he could, just to make sure that no rival would turn up in something he hadn't tried. But when he arrived here last week, he wasn't sure what he would be wearing on the blocks. "I might just reach into my backpack," he said with a shrug.

Whatever Hansen felt most comfortable in was what he would wear. In Sunday's heats and semis, it was the LZR Legskin, which goes from waist to instep, and Hansen cruised into the final in a meet-record 59.24, just 11-hundredths of a second off his world mark. Last night, he was back in the Speedo, but he felt anything but slick and swift.

"I was a little nervous going into tonight," he said. "I don't know what it was. I wanted to secure my spot on the team, rather than set a world record. I was trying to get my hand on the wall first."

Unlike Phelps and Natalie Coughlin - who reclaimed her world mark in the 100 backstroke (59.03) just a couple of minutes after Hayley McGregory had broken it in yesterday's prelims - Hansen doesn't have the luxury of sampling the smorgasbord here. He's a one-stroke pony with just two chances to get back to Olympus and he has to cash them both.

This is the only meet where second place is as good as first and where a world record in the prelims is a mere footnote if you don't make the team. "If I had to pick a place to break the record, it would be at the Olympics," Hansen said. "I've done it at trials, and it's more fun at the Olympics."

That's where Kitajima will be and that's the race everyone will remember. "I had a target on my chest," said Hansen. "Now, he has a target on his chest. I'm a good hunter. That's what I do. I'm going to bring it."

John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com.