By Kaitlin Sandeno

Editor's note: In July, USC senior Kaitlin Sandeno set out to make her second consecutive appearance at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Sandeno, a captain on the USC women's swim team, flourished in Greece, taking home a gold, silver and bronze medal as representative of the United States. She returned to campus last week to begin classes for the fall semester and was asked to write a first-person account of her experience. This is Sandeno's story in her own words.

This was certainly not a typical summer. Not to say that competing Olympic Games is ever a normal thing, but I am pretty certain that mine was extra amazing. My Olympic story really started four years ago just after the Sydney Games, but it was the last two months that were the most unreal.

The United States Olympic Swimming Trials went down in July in Long Beach and I went into them hoping to make the team for the second time. My first race was the 400 individual medley and it turned out okay, but I was not satisfied. I finished second to a 15-year-old girl from Baltimore and swam essentially the same time I had four years ago, but the relief was, I had made the team. Having already qualified took a lot of pressure off of me in my other events. One of those events was the 200-meter freestyle where I earned a spot to swim on my first relay in international competition, the 4x200-meter free relay. I always loved swimming on relays at USC and my goal was to make this relay, so I was pretty stoked to be getting a chance to be a part of that team. By the end of the trials I had qualified to swim in four events and had regained some legitimacy after having had some rough years since Sydney.

Because of my newly regained "street cred" and what not, I was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. Just two days after trials were over I signed a contract with Nike. It is so hard to explain how amazing Nike is to me and how happy I am to be with them. They look at me not only as a swimmer, but as an athlete and even more than that, as a part of their family. Nike really wanted a female swimmer to represent them at the Olympics and it worked out perfectly for me to sign with them.

Other than Nike, and photo shoots with Stuff and MTV magazines, I did not get much hype. In 2000, there were a lot of predictions about what medals I would win, but this year there was not much of a buzz around me in the media. It did not really phase me though, I knew what I was doing and all I really wanted was to swim faster than I ever had before, whatever happened after that happened.

At the pre-Olympic training camp I really got into a good groove for swimming. I had great friends around me like my Trojan teammates and then I also had awesome people like Amanda Beard, Diana Munz and Ryan Lochte to keep things light.

I was swimming great in practice, but if you were with my friends in between training sessions you never would have known that we were preparing for the biggest event in our sport. The laid back attitude and lack of serious expectations were the ideal setting to prepare for the Games.

Once the Olympics started the real fun began. I swam, just like at trials, the 400 IM on the very first day and although I was not expected to win a medal, I qualified for the finals in second. That night I learned how to swim the 400 IM for real-sure I had found success in it in the past-but that night I dropped five-and-one-half seconds off my best time, won the silver medal and broke a 12-year old American record! My swim amazed me! And for the first time in a very long time in my swimming career, I was very proud of what I had just accomplished.

I could not have asked for a better time to figure that event out then in the finals at the Olympic Games, my heart races just thinking about it. After that race it was hard to calm down, sleeping became almost a joke because my energy was always so high, I was having so much fun. I wouldn't be able to sleep because I was just so excited to compete in my next race. I know everyone uses the word "fun" to describe all kinds of things, but seriously, fun is exactly what it was.

Every chance I had to swim after that was awesome. I loved it all. Our 4x200 free relay team won the gold medal and broke the oldest world record in swimming (one that has been rumored to be "tainted"), exactly 17 years to the day after the East Germans set it. Everything seemed too perfect, the pool felt good and my swim suit felt fast-it was awesome. I came home with a medal of each color, a world record, an Olympic record, two American records, all personal best times, and the greatest experience of my life thus far. Even now I am struggling to find the words to describe it all.

Once the swimming part of the competition was over I finally got to enjoy some of the other things Athens had to offer. Good call on putting the Olympics in an area known to have some of the best night clubs in the world! Athletes do everything in their lives to the extreme, they work hard and they play hard, so it was a lot of fun to enjoy myself a little bit before I came home and back to school. I had a chance to go to a lot of crazy parties like the Red Bull party with the number two DJ in the world spinning, and the show Access Hollywood even followed me around the Sports Illustrated party. It is unique to compete against athletes from all over the world and then to be able to see them in such a different setting and have a blast hanging out with them.

I have had so many mind-blowing opportunities since I finished swimming; I am really blessed to be where I am today. I have done the "Today Show" twice along with "Access Hollywood," presented the Viewers Choice Award at the MTV Music Awards to Linkin Park, and been on "The Best Damn Sports Show Period" all in just the last couple of weeks. I have always wanted to get into the sports or entertainment broadcasting world and this has given me a great foot in that door. I am so thankful.

The attention is flattering, although it is a little weird to get standing ovations when I walk into restaurants at home in Orange County, and I am still embarrassed to wear my medals for television. I guess that is because in spite of everything that happened that was so great, I never changed inside. I have always known who I am and the way I swim will never change that.

It is really good to be home now with my family. A couple of nights ago I started crying for no reason other than that I did not want it all to end. Thankfully, I had my mom and sister there to comfort me.

A lot of people don't understand what an emotional experience the Olympics really are. You are put in an environment that takes you on a roller coaster ride full of highs, lows, and everything in between.

Everything went so well this time, it made my Olympic experience in 2000 seem like the Junior Olympics. Athens will always hold a special place in my heart and I am so happy and proud to be a swimmer and even more proud to swim for this country. I wish that I could suck all of my feelings out of my body and share them with other people so they could really know how wonderful it feels. In the end, I guess this summer could never be repeated and that is why it was far from being typical.

Special thanks to Trent Staley and Kammy Miller.

Excerpted from the Daily Trojan