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.

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Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesChloe Sutton will vie for spots in the 400 and 800 at the Olympic trials in late June.

"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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