Usher falls short in bid for Beijing Olympics

Scott Usher's 2008 Olympic dreams came to an end Thursday night.

Usher was swimming in the finals of the 200-meter breaststroke at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials. The top two advance to the Olympics in Beijing.

Usher ended up third.

The Grand Island native finished the race in 2 minutes, 11 seconds. Scott Spann was the surprise winner in 2:09.97 while Eric Shanteau was second in 2:10.36.

Usher seemed at ease with the third-place finish after the race.

"Four years ago I didn't know if I'd be here," Usher said. "It's been a fun ride. It's great to go down like this. I gave it my all for Nebraska and Omaha. I just came up short."

Brian Jensen of Grand Island, who was Usher's club coach when he was in high school, said it all came down to the finish.

"He was in good shape at the 100," Jensen said. "It just came down to who was going to hit the wall first. The breaststroke is about timing at the finish. One guy happened to be at the end of his stroke and Scott was at the beginning of his stroke and that was the difference."

Usher was in second after the first split, then was pretty much third the rest of the way.

"This whole meet I haven't felt the best, so I think my taper was a little off," Usher said. "I knew I was there. I could feel the guys moving on my right side there in that last 50, but I was doing all I could to keep my stroke rate going and everything. I just got out-touched."

Jensen said he talked to Usher a little before the race and he seemed relaxed and ready to go. That showed when he got in the pool.

"He did give it his best effort," Jensen said. "It's very tough to make this team. There probably isn't any team in anything that's harder to make than the U.S. swim team. You look at half the people have to break a world record to get on it. There's nothing else like that in the world.

"It's an amazing accomplishment even to have made it once."

American record-holder Brendan Hansen was definitely a favorite going into the race, but he finished fourth in 2:11.37.

Hansen has been working out with both Spann and Shanteau over the past several months with the Longhorn Aquatics Club. He said he taught them everything he knew, but maybe he taught them too much.

 "These guys just brought it tonight," Hansen said. "They really did. Scott (Spann) is a stud. He's going to swim well. I might have been worrying too much about what I needed to do to get this done and didn't worry enough about the guys who were gunning for me at the same time.

"My hat's off to them. I train with them every single day. I think I might have trained them a little too well, but I'm proud of them and hope to give my best in the training camp the next couple of weeks."

Hansen, who won the 100 breaststroke earlier in the meet, said he'll do everything he can to get Spann and Shanteau ready to face world-record holder Kosuke Kitajima of Japan in the Olympics.

"I don't know what to tell you," Hansen said. "It's going to be fun, but I'm going to tell these guys what they need to do to beat him. If I can't do it, I'm going to make sure that they do. By him, you know who I'm talking about."

Usher, who finished seventh in the 200 breaststroke at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, won't be going to Beijing.

"A lot of relaxation and figuring things," Usher said when asked what was next for him. "It's been 2 and 1/2 years since I graduated from college. Who knows what's going to happen?"

If this is the end of Usher's swimming career, it couldn't have ended in a better place  -- except for Beijing of course.

Usher was a home-state favorite throughout the meet.

"All my hometown friends, family, coaches, everybody from the state of Nebraska, it's been awesome," Usher said. "They all came to support me. I got some many phone calls. It's been amazing."

E-mail Bob Hamar