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DALLAS -- At a time when comebacks appear to be all the rage in swimming and the likes of Janet Evans and Brendan Hansen have returned to the pool in the hopes of returning to Olympic glory, there's one man who has decided to stay home. And there's nothing Hansen or anyone else can do about it.

Five-time Olympic gold medalist Aaron Peirsol, widely considered one of the greatest American backstrokers, retired after the 2010 Pan-Pacific Championships in Irvine, Calif. Last year, when the 30-year-old Hansen, a two-time Olympian, decided to return to competition, he called the 28-year-old Peirsol and begged him to come along for the ride. The answer was no.

"I tried," Hansen said Monday at the U.S. Olympic Media Summit. "I told him, 'I've been doing breaststroke off of you in medley relays for the last 10 years. I'd reaaaaaaaaaally like to do it one more time.' But he felt really comfortable with how he left the sport. To say, 'Hey dude, let's go win some medals,' it wasn't a great fit."

If there's anyone who understood, it was Hansen. He left the sport burnt out after Beijing in 2008, convinced he would not swim competitively again. But he rediscovered his passion for the sport by racing in triathlons and last year was convinced by coach Eddie Reese to return to the pool. He's one of the favorites to make the U.S. team in the 100-meter and 200 breaststroke. If he does make the team, Hansen said it will be different without Peirsol there.

"I don't want to say anything about the backstrokers now, but he's a big part of the team," Hansen said. "He'll be missed, but I understand why he left. The sport of swimming is tough on people."

Hansen said he has leaned on two other swimmers in the midst of comebacks, 45-year-old Dara Torres and 36-year-old Jason Lezak, for advice on how to go about competing after the age of 30. It was Torres who insisted the key is being proactive with medical issues and not waiting until a problem arises.

"She told me, 'Don't be like, my shoulder hurts and now I need to go see the doctor,'" Hansen said. "Be proactive. It's a lot more work and you need to take care of yourself, but it's worth it because I've been injury-free going into these Games."

Chloe Sutton turned 20 this week with a unique goal in sight. If all goes well for the next few months, she could become the first U.S. swimmer to have made Olympic teams in both open water and pool events.

Sutton, who swims for the Mission Viejo (Calif.) Nadadores club, blazed onto the open water scene at age 14 and over the next two years would win gold in the 10K at the Pan American and Pan Pacific Games and a bronze medal in the 5K at the 2008 World Championships. Sutton was the only U.S. woman to compete in the 10K race in Beijing in 2008, the first year the grueling discipline of open water was included in the Summer Games, and finished 22nd.

But by 2010, Sutton's double life was wearing thin. When she qualified for the open water worlds and the Pan Pac pool team -- events that were three weeks apart -- her coach, the venerable Bill Rose, asked where her heart was and Sutton put open water aside.

"She was never not a pool swimmer," Rose said. "Ninety-eight percent of her training was in the pool and geared for the pool." Sutton benefitted confidence-wise from her early success and grew because of her experience at the top level internationally in open water, Rose said.

Sutton has won the 400 in national and international competition and is a two-time national champion in the 800 since targeting the pool, but she's still in transition. Like many open water swimmers, she used a two-beat kick, but Rose has phased that out in favor of a six-beat kick to bump up her speed, asking her to give up her old two-beat cadence even in training. Sutton just completed that changeover and is racing both events with her revamped stroke now, but won't see what happens in a tapered meet until the Olympic trials in late June.

Rose said he thinks it will take an 8:18 to get on the Olympic podium in the 800 -- six seconds faster than Sutton's personal best, but achievable, he said.

"I have to give her so much credit," Rose said. "She has her eye on the prize. She lives the sport."

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Here are excerpts from our conversation with four-time Olympic gold medalist Janet Evans, who will make her return to elite competition after a 15-year absence this weekend at the Austin Grand Prix (you can read our full feature on Evans' comeback bid here):

Question from Bonnie D. Ford: I take it you've given some thought to what it's going to be like to be on the pool deck with all these elite swimmers again, in a swimsuit as opposed to street clothes?

Answer from Evans: It's kind of strange. It's not daunting, but it's like 'OK, wow, I'm really doing this.' I'm used to sitting up in the bleachers and coming down and saying "Hi" to them. Mark [Schubert] was teasing me the other day, because our caps are green, and I was saying, "I don't want to wear a green cap. I want to be more incognito." And Mark was like, "I don't think you're gonna be incognito. I don't think wearing a different color cap is gonna make you disappear in the crowd."

Q: Speaking of Mark, how critical was his ability and willingness to coach you to this endeavor? Could you have done this with any other coach?

A: Mark's never really left my life. He and I are very close. We understand each other very well. I think at this point, he's the only person who could have mentally -- I mean, physically, I think I know enough about myself and my body, I know how I feel in the water; physically, I think I could have trained with a lot of coaches. Mentally and emotionally, I think I needed Mark ... It's a comfortable relationship where I can tell him how I feel in the water and he understands it. I think another thing that's really helped us is that his daughter has two kids that are our kids' age, and he understands if I have to stay up with one of the kids.

Q: What are your expectations of this first meet?

A: I just want to see what I can do. I want to get up in the blocks. I would really love to make Olympic trials. I don't really have that many expectations. I just want to swim faster than I did against the Masters swimmers in June.

Q: In which event do you have a better shot of making the trials qualifying time?

A: I think maybe the 800. The 400, it depends how much speed I can find.

Q: Let's say you're successful. There's a big difference between that and then making the [Olympic] team and then being competitive at an Olympics. It's hard for me to imagine you being "just happy to be there." How are you navigating that mentally?

A: Look, I have no illusions that I'm going to jump in the pool and go an 8:25. That's OK. If I can improve dramatically from where I was in June, it's only January, I feel like the improvement continues. Every week, it goes better for me at workout. It's almost like baby steps a little bit, big baby steps because we don't have that much time. There's a medium middle ground for me that I'm going to be really happy with in Austin, and then we'll go from there. I need to go faster than I did in June, but I don't need to go an 8:25. Somewhere in there will show me the improvement, show me what I need to work on. It's been six months since June. Let's see what happens, and then we have another six months. I just have to make those trials cuts.

Q: You're swimming at a weight that's a lot closer to your teenage weight than your 1996 weight.

A: I'm higher in the water, and most importantly, my stroke is driven by my tempo, and when I'm heavier, I can't get my tempo going. That was one of Mark's big things, he said, "I always wanted to coach you at your fighting weight," which was like 100. Right now, I'm about 108. I was about 112 when this started. ... It's kind of fun to be so fit, that's the best part of it. My strength-to-weight ratio is really good. I feel really strong. I recover better when my weight's good. My tempo's really good in practice. Because my weight's down, I can spend a little more time on literally being in the weight room or swim a little more, something I wasn't able to do toward end of my career.

Q: You were very outspoken about doping back in the day and you competed against swimmers who doped. People are a lot more cynical now than they were then. Are you ready for those questions, that you can't possibly be doing this at 40 after having two kids?

A: Yeah, I totally am. But you know what, I've had that my whole life. I had people telling me I was doing drugs when I was 16 and I weighed 99 pounds, so it's inevitable. Any time an athlete reaches some level of success, people think they're not doing it naturally. Sure, I'm ready for it. I'm a girl who swam against the East Germans, so I'm hypersensitive to it, because they were cheating, as we all unfortunately know now. It's not something I've ever been interested in or wanted to try or do; it's not worth it to me. I'm ready. [Laughs] I'm ready.

Q: You had a very busy life leading up to this. What did you have to give up in order to do this?

A: My girlfriends laugh at me because sometimes I don't look pretty. I get to preschool with hair dripping wet, don't have on a stitch of makeup, in sweats. Little crazy things during the day don't go the way I want them to because I'm a little frazzled. It all works. Most of all, I miss sleep. Mark's always on me to get more sleep. But I'd rather get up early and spend time with my kids. [Corporate and motivational] speaking and all that stuff, we'll be careful the next couple of months because I'm training. I haven't had a vacation in year and a half, but that can all come later. Right now, my focus is my children and swimming and my family. Somehow, it's all clicking.

Olympic hopeful Christine Jennings doesn't have to be educated about the inherent perils of open-water swimming (heat exhaustion, hypothermia, polluted water and stinging jellyfish, among others), but she never, ever imagined she'd be hurt sprinting toward a finish line on the beach.

Almost three weeks ago, Jennings emerged from the water for the homestretch of an invitational race in Rio de Janeiro that alternated swimming and running, with five repetitions of an 800-meter swim followed by a 50-meter dash on the beach. As she hoofed it to the finish on the uneven sand, Jennings felt her hyperextended right leg buckle and looked down to the horrifying sight of knee and calf twisting in opposite directions.

Brazilian television ran the footage at regular intervals for the next 24 hours. Jennings, trying to find some humor in the situation, tweeted from her hospital bed: "Who knew that breaking your leg could get you famous in another country? ... I can't watch!"

The toll for the 2010 Pan Pacific gold medalist and two-time world championship team member: fractures of the tibial plateau and fibula, and a sprained posterior cruciate ligament. The timing: lousy, since Jennings is entering a critical period in her bid to book a place on the U.S. Olympic team for the 10K open-water event.

Fellow American Alex Meyer has already qualified with a fourth-place finish at the world championships. Only one U.S. woman can join him among the elite in London by finishing in the top two at the national championships in late April and then in the top nine in an Olympic qualifying race in Portugal on June 9.

Jennings was able to fly home a day after her freak injury, then suffered through a bout of food poisoning. She recently began upper-body workouts and got into a pool this past Thursday for the first time since the accident to do some pulling with her legs in a stationary position. She's not sure when she'll be able to resume full training, but intends to carry on with her competitive plan this spring.

"The story hasn't ended yet -- it all depends on who's writing it," Jennings said by phone from the U.S. Olympic training center in Colorado Springs. "I'm going to make [rehab] my job as best I can."

At the 2009 swimming world championships in Rome, the suits overshadowed the athletes who inhabited them.

Those second skins that incorporated buoyant polyurethane -- simply referred to as "rubber suits" by the swimmers -- could take a half-hour or more to wriggle into, a worthwhile endeavor because they slashed precious seconds from personal bests. World records tumbled. Many in the sport protested, while some contended that technology should be allowed to progress unimpeded.

The many prevailed, and the controversial suits were banned by FINA, swimming's world governing body. Over the past two seasons, the athletes have inched toward the rubber-aided records wearing more conventional "textile" suits, and this year the ultra-talented Ryan Lochte punched through the fabric wall and broke the world record in the 200-meter individual medley.

So when eight Americans and one Canadian swimmer stalked onto a runway in Manhattan on Wednesday wearing new Speedo gear that meets the current rules but also comes with the promise of better biomechanical efficiency, it was hard to sort out what that meant. Where is the line between performance-enhancing and performance-optimizing? Will future records forever be linked to fashion eras, with invisible asterisks dotting the archives?

"The only thing I'll say to that is this -- the suit can't swim itself," said three-time world championship medalist Tyler Clary, the individual-medley standout and former swimmer for the Michigan Wolverines. "You still have to put in the training. You still have to have the mental aptitude to put together a race. The suits can't and never will take that away from somebody until you start putting in a living bio-exo-skeleton."

Athletes like Clary are clearly offended by the idea that they are mere passengers on a high-tech train, but they also want to believe they are competing with state-of-the-art apparel. The Speedo Fastskin3 -- debuted around the world Wednesday and billed as a "system" that integrates the design of suit, goggles and cap -- is the latest attempt at achieving that balance.

The woven suit still requires considerable effort to tug on but is made of permeable material that compresses key parts of a swimmer's body to streamline it. Minus the option of full body coverage, now limited by FINA rules, Speedo designers turned their attention to reducing the drag caused by accessories.

The new goggles are said to be more hydro-dynamic and permit peripheral vision, an innovation especially valued by backstrokers, who often have trouble gauging where their competition is because they're facing the sky or the ceiling and are screened by splashing. It will come into play underwater, too. Michael Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, speculated the 16-time Olympic medalist would save valuable fractions of seconds because he won't be tempted to turn his head to look at his rivals when he pushes off the wall on a turn.

Athletes with long tresses stand to benefit from a "hair management system" (and who among us couldn't use that on a given day?) in the form of a tight-fitting, cloth do-rag imprinted with arrows that show how to pack hair into a streamlined bun on the nape of the neck. A slick, thicker cap layers over that.

Natalie Coughlin demonstrated for reporters, dividing her nearly waist-length hair into two hanks which then magically disappeared under the cloth cap. She likened the resulting shape of her head to the tapered helmet worn by cyclists.

"The drag we have in the pool is similar to 60 or 70 mph on land," the 11-time Olympic medalist said. "So if you're driving down the highway and you stick your hand outside, going from having your hand turned flat out to turning your hand just the slightest increment will make the biggest difference. And that's what swimming is about, finding those places where you can shave time."

The swimmers who strutted their stuff Wednesday are all sponsored by Speedo, and several of them have participated in the development and testing process over the past four years. They praised the gear for comfort and its potential contribution to their success, as would be expected. Those compliments could be tested soon; the swimwear is approved for competition starting Jan. 1, and several athletes said they plan to don it for the Austin Grand Prix event later that month.

However, when it comes time for the Olympic trials in late June and the London Olympics a month later, anyone, regardless of sponsorship, will be able to race in the Fastskin3. Speedo president Jim Gerson said the company will provide it on request to any swimmer and he does not anticipate the supply crunch that ensued at the same juncture with the first generation of high-tech suits in 2008.

The bottom line: Once swimmers take their marks, they can't afford to fixate on what they're wearing, negatively or positively. Freestyle sprinter Nathan Adrian said what he most values is feeling that he's not behind when he steps up to the starting blocks.

"I choose to race in the best suit given what the rules are," he said.

Lochte said he thinks he'll break his 200 IM record, but emphasized he wants to correct the infinitesimal mistakes he made in that swim rather than leaning on an advantage conferred by apparel.

"It's the swimmer propelling the suit and not the other way around," Coughlin said firmly. "It's an Olympic year; people are training very well and this is what all of us have dreamt about and focused on, so people are going to be fast, regardless. Give us a baby pool and we'll figure out a way to be fast."

After three days of competition at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, nine athletes were nominated for the U.S. Olympic synchronized swimming team.

The U.S. team is coming off a silver medal victory in team and duet at the Pan American Games. They will try to earn a berth in the London Games at the Olympic Qualification Tournament on April 18-22.

The roster is subject to approval by the U.S. Olympic Committee.

New coach Mayuko "Mayu" Fujiki was named the U.S. national team coach in January 2011. He led Spain to silver medals at the 2008 Olympic Games and the overall trophy at the FINA World Trophy in 2010.

Three-time Olympic medalist Rebecca Soni helps the Sport Science crew break down the fundamentals for the breaststroke:

Led by 2011 World Championships gold medalists Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin, Michael Phelps and Elizabeth Beisel, USA Swimming announced its 2011-12 national team roster.

The team also features open water standouts Alex Meyer, Eva Fabian, Sean Ryan and Christine Jennings.

Swimmer were selected for the team based on their times in Olympic events from the 2011 FINA World Championships, the 2011 ConocoPhillips National Championships and the 2011 World University Games. Athletes with the top six times in each event make the team, but relay lead-offs and time trials are not included.

Open water swimmers were selected from the top six finishers at the 2011 USA Swimming 10K Open Water National Championship and World Championship Trials.

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Back on Aug. 17, 2008, Michael Phelps completed his run at history, winning his record eighth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics.

Re-live Phelps' feat, race by race, right here.

On This Day in Sports History (Aug. 16, 2008), Michael Phelps won his seventh Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics:

LONDON -- London Olympic organizers will unveil another course for the 2012 Games this weekend with the test event for a 10-kilometer marathon swim in Hyde Park's Serpentine.

The event comes just days after spectators got their first look at beach volleyball at historic Horse Guards Parade despite rioting in London. A strong field including world champion Spyridon Gianniotis will take to the water of the 271-year-old artificial lake in an event open to the public.

The Serpentine already hosted part of last weekend's triathlon test even. The men's and women's races on Saturday take a different route around the serpent-shaped lake.

The beach volleyball test event on Tuesday was shortened because of the rioting.

What can the sport of swimming do to top Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals in 2008? Well, how about a competitive rivalry between Phelps and his friend, Ryan Lochte?

Lochte beat Phelps for the second time at the world championships in Shanghai on Thursday, following up his gold in the 200 free Tuesday with a world-record time of 1:54.00 in the 200 IM. It was the first world record set since the high-tech bodysuits were banned. Phelps was second in 1:54.16.

Phelps told reporters that both losses told him the same thing: "I need to be in better shape. If I want to be faster, the work has to be there and it has to be there consistently."

In other words, the man who has already competed in three Olympics, won 14 gold medals and pretty much accomplished everything he can in his sport now has an incentive to work even harder for London. He has a rival to beat, even if it is a friendly rivalry. I would draw a comparison to Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998, but I'll avoid the negative baggage that might go with that. Let's just say this could be interesting.

And don't underestimate Phelps. He may not be in top form, but he's won four medals this week -- Lochte has three -- and won the 200 fly Wednesday, the fifth time he's won that event at the world championships.

London organizers marked the completion of the Aquatic Center by having 17-year-old Tom Daley take the first dive in the venue, days after he qualified for his second Olympics.

"It's a pretty big moment for us," organizing committee chairman Sebastian Coe said. "Though a mountain of work is still needed to prepare [the venues], we have an extraordinary platform to build on ... I don't think we are sitting here fearful of anything; we have everything under control."

The 17,500-seat venue, which will be used for swimming, synchronized swimming and water polo events, was expected to be among the first major projects to be finished and one of the boldest architectural statements on the 560-acre east London site.

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With exactly one year until the start of the London Olympics, construction has been completed on the six main venues in the Olympic Park: the Olympic Stadium, Velodrome, Handball Arena, Basketball Arena, Aquatics Centre and the International Broadcast Centre.

"To have all six permanent venues complete with a year still to go to the Games is a great achievement, and a firm sign that we are well on track to deliver a truly spectacular show in 2012," London Mayor Boris Johnson said in a statement released by the Olympic Delivery Authority.

Equivalent to the size of Hyde Park, the Olympic Park will have five new permanent venues, 30 new bridges and 4,000 new trees and will be served by 10 rail lines.

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The field for the Olympic 10-kilometer open water event is ultra-select. Just 25 men and 25 women will make the cut for next summer's race in the famous Serpentine lake in London's Hyde Park -- and the world championship race off Jinshan Beach near Shanghai is the most direct route for them to qualify.

Each country has a maximum of two entrants in the women's (begins Tuesday) and men's (begins Wednesday) races at worlds. The top 10 finishers automatically qualify for the Olympic race. The rest will have to qualify through other events next spring.

Open water racing this season has been dominated by the debate over safety reforms following Fran Crippen's tragic drowning last October at the World Cup final in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. Three of the four Americans who will compete in the 10K Tuesday were at the race on that terrible day, and each felt the impact in different ways.

Crippen's friend and traveling roommate Alex Meyer led the search for him. Christine Jennings and Eva Fabian suffered in the extreme heat and required medical attention afterward; Jennings actually signaled for help on the course but got no response. Their heartrending personal accounts helped prompt USA Swimming to commission an investigation and adopt new rules for open water events that are probably the strictest in the world.

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