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Amanda Beard has delivered her fair share of memorable moments in a glittering career but this week the 28-year-old has relished being on the receiving end at the Pan Pacific Championships.
The four-time Olympian booked her place at the Pan Pacs with a stunning performance at the U.S. nationals earlier this month and has since taken great delight simply from being around her much younger American team mates.
"It's fun because I respect them and all the things that they do, the amazing athletes that they are," Beard told reporters at the William Woolett Jr. Aquatics Center.
"I am in awe at being around these people, taking in and learning from everything out there that they're doing ... talking to them and kind of picking their brains and stuff.
"I don't feel like you're ever too good to learn. It's always, always a whole new life cycle for me."
Beard, a winner of seven Olympic medals including two golds, had not initially planned to compete at the U.S. nationals but she changed her mind and went on to finish a surprise second in the 200 metres breaststroke.
That performance earned her an unexpected spot on the U.S. team for the Pan Pacs but, having given birth to her first child only 11 months earlier, she again wavered before deciding to take part.
'NEW KID'
"Everything has been a surprise," said Beard, who finished a highly creditable fifth in the 200 breaststroke on Thursday. "And every time I get surprised, I am really thankful. It's like I am a new kid again. I am having such fun.
"It really motivates you. I probably haven't been this motivated in the pool since 2004. In 2008, I was ready and wanted to swim and have fun but not at the same level.
"Now I am truly enjoying the whole process," added the American, who won Olympic gold in 1996 as a 14-year-old in the 4x100 medley relay and famously hugged her teddy bear during the medal ceremony.
Beard also won gold in the 200 breaststroke at the 2004 Athens Games but four years later in Beijing she failed to make it to the semi-finals after finishing sixth in her heat.
Now motherhood is uppermost in her mind and her biggest challenge has been juggling the time between her 11-month-old son Blaise, her husband Sacha Brown, and her training schedule.
"I deal with it on a day-by-day basis," said Beard, who created a stir by posing naked in Playboy magazine in 2007. "I wake up and get my practice in, and then try to hang out with Blaise as much as possible during the day.
"I get my fix there and then make sure that I get some good bonding with the team too because that makes us all faster. So I am just kind of running all over the place making sure everything gets done."
(Editing by Steve Ginsburg; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
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