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August 14, 2004 9:19 am

Nerves sink Hoff in preliminaries

By MIKE DODD

USA TODAY

ATHENS Greece - Katie Hoff, considered a medal candidate in the 400-meter individual medley and the youngest athlete on the U.S. Olympic team, suffered opening-day jitters Saturday and failed to qualify for the finals in the event.

Hoff, who turned 15 on June 3, finished 17th in the preliminaries of the 400 IM, swimming 10 seconds slower than her 2004 world-best time at the U.S. trials last month.

"I think she just was a little bit nervous. It's a little bit of a new experience for her," said Paul Yetter, Hoff's coach. "She's only swum the long-course 400 IM less than 20 times. She's a rookie at this compared to the rest of these kids."

Swimming in her first international meet, Hoff lost ground in the third leg of the race, the breaststroke, and faltered badly in the freestyle, finishing the final 50 meters with the slowest split in the field. She finished in 4 minutes, 47.49 seconds.

At the trials in Long Beach, Calif., last month, she swam 4:37.67, the fastest time in the world this year, marking her as a strong candidate for a gold or silver medal in Athens.

Hoff swims for the same club, North Baltimore, as Michael Phelps, who recorded the fastest time in the preliminaries of the men's 400 IM (4:13.29) in the first event of the meet.

"To come here on day one and go out and do your thing is pretty tough when you haven't been here before," said Bob Bowman, Phelps' coach, of Hoff.Yetter said the young swimmer hasn't been ill or suffering from any physical problems.

"She's fine. ... She just didn't quite have it at the end," he said.

She'll be back in the pool quickly, though, competing in the 200 IM Monday and Tuesday.

"We're certainly here for two reasons," Yetter said. "One is to try to medal and win some medals for the United States, and the other is to get some experience for down the road. The kid's 15, she just turned 15."

The teenager, who burst onto the U.S. scene this spring, did not speak with reporters after the race.

"She's probably got a bunch of emotions right now. None of them are happy," Yetter said. "I can rule out happy. I can also rule out feeling great."

Kaitlin Sandeno of the U.S. qualified second in the event.

Contributing: Vicki Michaelis, USA TODAY

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