Mania in contention for 2012 Games

Adam Mania of Milwaukee was uptight and over-trained going into the 2008 U.S. Olympic team trials for swimming.

Perhaps not surprisingly, he failed to make the team.

"I had these very high expectations," he said. "I was putting in 20 hours a week of pure swimming. I came away feeling like it was time lost and part of my life was lost."

Mania still works extremely hard, but he's got perspective and balance in his life. More than anything, he's having fun.

At the 2011 AT&T Winter National Championships in Atlanta a week ago, he relaxed with friends at a restaurant the night before the 100-meter backstroke final and enjoyed a meal that included ribs, peanuts and white bread.

"It probably wasn't the best pre-race meal," Mania admitted, "but man, it made me happy."

The next day, at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, he finished fourth with a time of 55.06 seconds, just 0.08 of a second off his personal best of 54.98.

"I'm really enjoying training and competing," he said. "I'm enjoying life. I'm loving what I'm doing."

Mania, 28, a full-time coach at the Walter Schroeder Aquatic Center, has dual citizenship and represented Poland at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. He wants to make the U.S. team for the 2012 London Games and believes his less-is-more approach gives him a chance.

"That's still the goal," he said. "In 2008, I had a disappointing year. I put together some good training but got too serious about it. In 2009, it became more of a hobby, I pulled back on training and I started having a lot more fun at the meets.

"For some reason during that time I started going faster and faster."

Mania is among the fastest in the world in the 50-meter backstroke; in 2009 he just missed the world record at a meet in Sweden. But the 50 is not an Olympic event. His best chance to make the U.S. team is in the 100, but he also swims the 200 backstroke and the 100 freestyle.

"Right now I'm consistently top 10 in the world in the 50 back and the top two in the U.S." he said. "If that was an Olympic event, the chances of me making the team would be very, very good.

"The 100 does tend to get a little long, especially the last 15 meters. It's 52, 53 seconds of max effort. I kind of have to get used to putting together those consecutive strokes for that period of time."

Mania already is qualified for the Olympic trials in the 100 backstroke. He also swam the 200 backstroke at Winter Nationals in 2:05.07, just missing the Olympic qualifying time of 2:04.99.