For a sport like swimming, which has never gotten much publicity outside of the Olympics, leap years are a lot like cumulative finals over a long semester.
It is in these years that all the hard work and preparation are finally tested. The problem is the tests come along only once every four years, and there is absolutely no sympathy for a "bad day." The only choice is to work hard and hope for the best.
When it comes to working hard, ASU senior swimmer Nick Brunelli and the rest of the ASU swim team are no slouches. Over the course of a week, the team trains for two hours every day, twice a day three times a week and once on Saturdays.
When asked what he likes to do in his free time, Brunelli was at a loss for words.
"I haven't had a lot of free time lately," he said. "That's been one thing that I haven't had in a while."
In reality, he is too focused on the task at hand: qualifying for this year's Olympics.
Four years ago, Nick Brunelli had qualified for the Olympic trials. Although he failed to make a significant dent in the field, it gave him the opportunity to get his feet wet at the national scene.
"The experience of being able to go and see the fast swimming and see where I needed to be was the first big step," Brunelli said.
Over the summer, Brunelli got a taste of what international competition is all about when he traveled with the U.S. swim team to the Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic. There he would earn a gold medal as part of the 400-meter medley relay.
"Being able to swim on a team that was considered the United States was unbelievable," Brunelli said. "That meet is always looked at as the people that are going to go to the Olympics the year after. It was really exciting to be a part of."
At the Pan American meet, Brunelli shared a hotel room with Valley native and four-time Olympic gold-medalist Gary Hall Jr., arguably the United States' best freestyle swimmer at 50m.
Brunelli said the experience also gave him a chance to learn training styles from some of the best swimmers in the nation. In particular, he said he picked up some things involving the fine tuning technique that he has focused more and more on this year in preparation for the Olympic championships.
Brunelli came to ASU all the way from Mansfield, Mass., a southern suburb of Boston. He is only one year away from leaving ASU, but he said he still has some goals to accomplish regarding unfinished business at the collegiate level in the Pac-10 and NCAA championships in February and March.
"The big goal is to win an event at the NCAA's," Brunelli said. Since a couple of competitors who placed ahead of him in the 100m last year are gone, the goal seems more than reasonable.
So far this season Brunelli has swam well. Of the three meets the men have competed in this year, he has won the 100- and 200-meter freestyle races. Against USC, Brunelli recorded a hat trick, winning the 50-meter freestyle race as well.
Junior Evan Rahaeuser, Brunelli's roommate and fellow ASU swimmer, said that part of what makes Brunelli so successful is his focus.
"He puts everything aside and focuses on swimming when he's at the pool," Rahaeuser said. "I think that is something that is hard for a lot of people to do."
Reach the reporter at matthew.schubert@asu.edu.
