{"id":586144,"date":"2024-07-07T08:39:44","date_gmt":"2024-07-07T15:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=586144"},"modified":"2024-07-07T08:39:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T15:39:44","slug":"how-kaitlin-sandeno-has-had-an-effect-on-swimming-beyond-the-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/how-kaitlin-sandeno-has-had-an-effect-on-swimming-beyond-the-pool\/","title":{"rendered":"How Kaitlin Sandeno Has Had an Effect on Swimming Beyond the Pool"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kaitlin Sandeno Effect on Trials & Swimming Goes Beyond the Pool<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kaitlin Sandeno has been around the sport of swimming for almost her entire life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sandeno, a two-time Olympian and four-time Olympic medalist, is a model of everything that USA Swimming represents; someone who has achieved excellence not only in the water but in life as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though Sandeno has been retired from swimming for more than a decade, her passion for the sport has not only remained the same but has grown in her time away from competing. Nowhere is this passion seen more at its fullest capacity than at the Olympic Trials, where she has become one of the most consistent presences on the pool deck.<\/span><\/p>\n

As swimmers throughout the United States are getting ready for the final tapers in preparation for Trials, Sandeno knows exactly what this preparation process is like. She has been on deck for every Trials since 2000, swimming in three, attending one, and serving as the deck host for the three most recent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Swimmer Trials<\/h4>\n

The 2000 Olympic Trials at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis were Sandeno’s first, and even 24 years after those Trials, it\u2019s not lost on her how fortunate she was to have such a remarkable meet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so grateful Indy was my first Trials,\u201d she said. \u201cTo be able to make the Olympic Team at your first Trials is pretty surreal when you think about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She would carry over the success she saw at Trails to the Olympic Games in Sydney where she won a bronze medal in the 800 free, while also learning valuable lessons that would help shape the rest of her swimming career.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the 2000 Olympic Trials were special to Sandeno, nothing was quite as special as the 2004 Trials in Long Beach.<\/span><\/p>\n

To grasp why these Trials have remained special to Sandeno, one has to look at the journey she went on between the 2000 Olympics and the 2004 Olympic Trials. After returning from Sydney, she graduated high school and went to swim for Mark Schubert<\/strong> at USC. But once on campus at Southern Cal, it would only begin the long journey to 2004.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From suffering a stress fracture in her back to being involved in a car accident in 2003, Sandeno wasn\u2019t sure that the 2004 Olympics were even a possibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe period between 2000 and 2004 was really rough for me. It was filled with a lot of injuries, illnesses, and a car accident,\u201d she said. \u201cMaking a second Olympic Team really didn\u2019t seem realistic for quite some time. <\/span>It makes me emotional just thinking about them and just the importance of family. My Family being at Long Beach and knowing that they were in my corner through such a rough season leading up to it was just so special.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The journey and hardships from Sydney to Athens would pay off for Sandeno; at the Athens Games, she won three medals and found her golden glow.<\/span><\/p>\n