Haley Anderson wasn't planning on seeing Italy.
But that's where the recent Granite Bay High School graduate is today as she prepares for the FINA World Swimming Championships starting this weekend in Rome.
This week she has been working out in the same pool with megastars Michael Phelps and Dara Torres.
The 17-year-old found herself scrambling for a change of clothes after her surprise second-place finish in the women's 800-meter freestyle at the USA Swimming National Championships earlier this month in Indianapolis. That qualified Anderson for worlds, but she learned there would be no time to return to Sacramento to pack. The U.S. team immediately headed to Italy for a 10-day training camp.
"Haley didn't bring anything," said her club coach, Jeff Pearson of the Sierra Marlins. "She wasn't thinking that far ahead. Fortunately, USA Swimming supplies a lot of stuff, so she didn't have to scramble for long."
Entering nationals, Anderson appeared to be a long shot to land one of the two qualifying spots for the world championships in the 800 free. Olympic medal winner Katie Hoff and defending 800 world champion Kate Ziegler were the favorites. But the flu sidelined Ziegler, and Hoff withdrew from the 800 after swimming poorly in the 200 and 400 free.
That opened the event to some new faces, and in the finals, Anderson had the swim of her life, topping her personal best before the meet by nearly seven seconds.
Anderson swam 8 minutes, 36.35 seconds in the preliminaries – the third-best time – but really revved things up in the finals on the last day of the meet, finishing second to former Roseville resident Chloe Sutton, the open-water Olympian now living in Mission Viejo.
Sutton won in 8:29.34, but Anderson clocked 8:31.66, nearly five seconds better than her preliminary time. She held off hard-charging Ashley Steenvoorden (8:31.95) of East Brunswick, N.J., at the end.
"When she got that personal best in the preliminaries, she got really excited," Pearson said. "She knew she had a shot, and she was finally starting to believe that she belonged on the team."
So Anderson, who will swim for USC in the fall, is practicing strokes with some of the world's best swimmers as she prepares to compete in the 800 and 1,500 free in Rome.
"Haley's still a little star-struck," Pearson said. "She's in the pool every day, eating with and hanging around swimmers like Ryan Lochte and Aaron Peirsol, the stars of the sport. It won't be long until she feels like one of those people."
If that's not enough, Anderson is swimming with older sister Alyssa, the former two-time Bee Swimmer of the Year now at Arizona, who made the team in the 800 free relay. Alyssa qualified by placing fourth in the 200 free at nationals.
They are believed to be the only sister duo other than Tara and Dana Kirk (2002 short-course world championships and 2004 Olympics) to represent the United States in a world-championship meet, according to a USA Swimming spokeswoman.
Pearson said an Olympic berth isn't a long shot for either.
"Both are hard workers who don't rely on their talent alone," Pearson said. "They see the bigger picture. They want to compete on the big stage."
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
Call The Bee's Bill Paterson, (916) 326-5506.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.