U.S. swim trials: Dana Kirk joins older sister as Olympian
LONG BEACH, Calif. — How unprepared was the swim world for two sisters from Bremerton to leap onto the national Olympic stage?
This much: Warming up a crowd of 10,000 fans at last night's Olympic trials, John Naber, a four-golds-and-a-silver swim legend from the 1976 Games, predicted a highlight: A 100-meter butterfly final involving Stanford swimmer "Dara Kirk."
There's no such animal. But it was an easy mistake.
Please make a note of it, America: That super-fast young woman from Stanford is actually two people.
One is Tara. The other is Dana.
And they're both about to trade in that Stanford Cardinal for red, white and blue — as the first sister act ever to appear on an American swim team.
Not a moment too soon.
Looking for a fresh athletic face to demolish the Seattle summer-sports doldrums, to push those endless headlines about greed and doping to the back pages?
Look toward these two. Get a jump on the world and take a minute to get to know them.
The Kirk sisters live together, train together, win together. But "we're completely different people," Dana reminds.
Dana 20, the younger sister, is a butterflyer. She's long and graceful in the water. She's also a little bit taller — OK, "a lot," if you ask her — and a lot more bubbly. She's a good cook, according to some members of Stanford's football team.
After a freshman year of Pac-10 college swimming she and her coach called "disappointing," she went out and improved a tad bit this year. Enough to beat every other swimmer in America in the 200 butterfly.
Dana Kirk didn't simply win the 200 fly final last night. She took possession of it, besting the world-record pace for the first three lengths of the pool, with the largest crowd ever to witness an American swim race egging her on.
She didn't have the strength to hold that pace to the end. It didn't matter. All she needed to hang onto, she knew, was that jaw-dropping lead.
She kept telling herself: "Fifteen more meters: I have to get to the wall. I have to get to the wall!"
She got there in 2 minutes, 8.86 seconds, achieving instant Athens orbit as Kaitlin Sandeno, 21, of USC, charged from an outside lane — too little, too late — to claim second at 2:09.94.
A few minutes later, still dripping wet and still walking on water, Dana was wandering around in the madness of a testing area near the warm-down pool. Her eyes lit up when she spotted her touchstone — her sister.
The Kirk sisters embraced and jumped up and down for joy in a way that would make a lot of hardened souls melt.
Lest you get unduly weepy here, listen to the post-jump/hug recap from Dana, the flippant one: "Her shoulder," Dana recalled, grinning, "came up into the bottom of my mouth, because she's SO short."
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She is a coach's dream — an athlete with a rare combination of intellect and courage, says her veteran Olympic coach, Richard Quick.
She will be a medal favorite in Athens, hoping to carry on a proud tradition in the breaststroke established at the Sydney Games by Puyallup's Megan Quann, who ran away with the 2000 gold in the 100 meters before 17,000 Aussie swim fans.
Oh: Tara may be among the world's elite swimmers, but she remains a lousy cook, according to her younger sister — you know, the taller one.
They kid each other a lot. But they have a bond that's tighter than a rubber Speedo cap on a bald head. Their bond is an empowering thing to watch, in the pool and out of it. They're a lesson in dedication, for sure. But an even larger lesson in the value of family.
Their smiles lit up Long Beach last night as Dana Kirk was awarded a first-place medal by a group of former Olympians. In the stands, their parents, Jeff and Margaret Kirk of Bremerton, were in pain.
Not from stress, from excessive back-patting — ebullient congratulations from friends and neighbors for a job well-done.
The sisters' Athens appearance will be a lot more than just an honor for them, Mom says: It's a testament to the entire Northwest swimming community — one that labors, often in the early-morning hours, often against great odds, and with poor facilities, but still manages to produce champions.
"It's amazing," Margaret Kirk said. "We're very proud, of course. And we're very thankful for support from our community for all these years."
She still can't quite grasp it.
She put the kids in swim lessons so they wouldn't drown outside the Kirk's home on Oyster Bay, near Bremerton. Who knew it would lead to this?
You sign them up, you take your chances, you wash their towels and pack their lunches, you hope for the best.
And sometimes, that's exactly what your kids become.
"Deep in my heart, I knew they had it in them," Margaret Kirk said, with a heavy sigh.
"This was their time. It was their moment."
With Athens on the horizon, we all might be lucky enough to share a few of their next ones.
Ron C. Judd: 206-464-8280 or at rjudd@seattletimes.com.