By Casey Millen
Excerpted from the Arkansas Traveller

Competing in the Olympics is one of the top honors attainable in the world of sports, giving an athlete the opportunity to represent their country on a world stage like no other.

It's not about money, it's not about contract extensions, it's about pride in one's country, themselves, and everything that one stands for. It's years of hard work, discipline, and weathering life's storms , if only for 27.09 seconds, as was the case for Lady'Back swimmer Zsuzsa Csobanki.

Csobanki is a senior at the UA majoring in interior design and a native of Hungary as well as a prominent figure on the women's swim team here. She qualified for the Olympics after winning the 50-meter freestyle at the Hungarian nationals, and this summer she was among the thousands of other athletes who worked their way to Athens, Greece, to represent their country in the 2004 Olympics.

"The most important thing I learned is that when you are in front of millions of people around the world, you just have to stand up, jump in the water and swim," she said of her experience. "Competing in the Olympics was the most exciting experience I've ever had.

"I practiced so hard before, I didn't have time to realize what it was I was really doing".

While in Athens, Csobanki stayed in the Olympic village with 10,000 other athletes.

"Everybody in Olympic Village was talking about their events and what happened, that was the best part because everyone worked so hard to be there. It was an unbelievable feeling."

Csobanki began swimming when she was three years old, and competed in her first event at age six.

"I had an older sister who was three years older than me, and whatever she did, I had to do with her, so when she began swimming I did as well," Csobanki said, citing her father as the main reason for her success. "My dad would wake me up every morning and take me to the pool at 5:30 a.m. He was really good about seeing through all of the fake head-aches.

"Of course there have been down parts of my career as a swimmer and those were the times when he has helped me the most, always staying behind me and pushing me," she continued. "I was in 10th grade and my dream was to come to the United States to study here, because back home, if you want to study you cannot compete, because school is non-stop and the teachers are not as helpful as they are here."

Csobanki was 18 when she moved to the USA, and said that her initial experience here was a bit frightening because she was the only Hungarian and she couldn't speak English.

She still lives with the same roommate she lived with in Gibson Hall her first semester, "She was a swimmer my freshman year and she helped me do everything, she is one of the main reasons I am still alive and well at UA."

As for Csobanki's future plans, she says that she only likes to look at one year at a time. Though she will not rule out a run for the Olympics in 2008, she is more focused on this year's team at UA.

"This is my last year to swim here at the University. We have so many freshman, we have a lot of new people and new people can surprise you; they have just been practicing so hard and seem to be a very motivated group. They study hard in school, practice really hard and ask a lot of questions, I can see their eagerness to get better and so far they have. Our first meet is Oct. 22 and it is the only home meet we will have this semester, so you all better come out and see us."