Beckberger shifts focus to 2012

Ajax swimmer wins at Nationals, but falls short of Olympic dream

July 24, 2008

By Brian McNair

OSHAWA -- Jen Beckberger would much rather have been in Singapore than sitting at the Donevan Recreation Complex shortly after bringing home a gold medal from the Summer Nationals in Winnipeg.

It's not that the 22-year-old Ajax swimmer has anything against the local pool.

Nor does she mind helping others reach their potential in the sport, which as a part-time coach she was doing that day.

It's simply that she expected her summer was going to include much more travel.

Specifically, Beckberger imagined herself being in Singapore at that time, preparing like the rest of the Canadian Olympic swim team for the Beijing Games.

It's a goal that was so close, yet now is so far.

After having "a bad meet" at the Olympic Trails in April, Beckberger, who swims locally with the Whitby Dolphins, will now have to wait four more years to get another shot at the world's biggest stage.

"I'd had a great season at school. I'd done best times, I just was off," Beckberger said of the Trials in Montreal, where she finished fifth in the 50m freestyle and thus missed making the relay team by one spot. "I definitely can build on it. I'm not going to let it get me down. I'm going another four years."

Beckberger proved her mettle three months later by winning gold in the same event at Nationals in Winnipeg, but she downplayed the significance of that.

While she finished two spots ahead of Olympic-bound Victoria Poon, Beckberger points out Poon wasn't at her peak level of training for the meet.

And, thanks in part to a loose starting block, her winning time of 25.99 wasn't overly impressive.

"I'll take the gold medal, it was great, but I turned around and felt it wasn't a great swim," she recalled of seeing the clock. "It wasn't a best time. Yes, national champion is great, but I feel it's kind of not national champion because it wasn't a best time and I didn't beat anyone else's time. Yes, I was the fastest at that time, but it wasn't a great swim."

Beckberger also delivered a bronze in the 100m freestyle, finished fourth in the 50m backstroke and seventh in the 200 free competing against the country's best in Winnipeg.

So, she's plenty talented.

In fact, she nearly qualified four years ago for the Athens Olympics, when she finished fourth at Trials in the 100m free, but standards were different then and she missed out.

Beckberger will return soon for Arizona State, where she's entering her senior year and will serve as co-captain of the swim team. The lifelong Ajax resident is on a full scholarship there, majoring in design studies.

"Swimming's a career in itself, five hours a day plus school gets pretty tough sometimes," she explained. "I'm going to be swimming another four years, so I don't think there's going to be a big career job any time soon, until after 2012."

Ah yes, 2012.

Having come so close twice now and likely to be at or near her peak in time for the London Games, Beckberger admitted that will likely be her last kick at the can.

"It's incredible how much it takes. It's a lot and it takes a lot out of you too, especially when you don't make it," she said. "It's a big one. If I don't make that one I think I'll be done."