By TRICIA GARNER
tricia@du2.byu.edu
BYU swimmer Arunas Savickas does not like the spotlight.
A 1996 Olympian, Savickas will only tell you he competed if you ask him point-blank. And that's assuming you know enough to even ask him.
Last season Savickas quickly asserted himself as one of the more dominant swimmers to jump into the BYU pool -- rewriting the record books by shattering old times in each of his events.
Savickas established five new individual records and four relay records ... as a freshman. Something else Savickas likes to downplay.
Despite whatever modesty he may exhibit, Savickas cannot avoid the fact that he has been a stellar addition to the men's swimming team since coming to BYU two years ago.
'He has done wonderful things for us,' head swim coach Tim Powers said. 'He's very involved and helpful to the younger swimmers.'
Savickas came to BYU with an impressive swimming background. A native of Panevezys, Lithuania, Savickas began on the deep end of the pool as a diver at age 8. But at the suggestion of his coach, he switched to swimming shortly thereafter.
'I didn't really like diving, so my coach suggested to me that I switch to swimming,' Savickas said.
It turned out to be a fortunate switch, as Savickas grew to an above-average height of 6 feet, 5 inches. He would have been unable to compete as a diver past high school due to his height.
In Lithuania, athletes are grouped together according to their particular sports. They then train and attend all of their classes together. For seven years, Savickas attended each class with a group of approximately 30 other swimmers, and then trained with them for an additional four to five hours until the ninth grade.
'All of my classes were just swimmers,' he said. 'We swam with our school, but didn't really compete between schools. It's not like here, where you swim to compete. We swam because there was the possibility we might be good swimmers later (and then compete internationally).'
The swimmers were then given the option to go on to a professional swimming schools or to continue on with three years of higher education, equivalent to high school education in the United States. Savickas chose to pursue his education but continued training an average of four or five hours daily.
While in school, Savickas was given the option to either study English or German as a second language. Savickas chose English, which would later play into in his decision to move to the United States.
Five years ago, Savickas competed at a Baltic State championship meet. At the meet was a coach who also was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The coach was training swimmers in London at the time.
'He went to the championship and saw a breaststroker, and he offered to have (the swimmer) come train with him,' Savickas said. 'So (the swimmer) went back, and after a while the coach needed a backstroker, and so the Lithuanian breaststroker suggested me.'
Savickas went to London to train for a short period of time, and then followed his coach to Arizona. In 1996, Savickas went to the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., where he competed in the 200-backstroke and ended up 21st in the world.
'I didn't do really well,' Savickas said. 'It was exciting, though. It was fun seeing famous people everywhere.'
Following the Olympics, Savickas began contacting colleges in the United States. He was heavily recruited by BYU, Wyoming, UNLV, Indiana and Ohio State. Ohio State was the early front-runner in Savickas' decision-making process, but in the end BYU won out, despite the fact that Savickas was and is not a member of the LDS Church.
'I came to the U.S. to get an education,' Savickas said. 'My coach in Arizona was an (LDS) member, so I knew a little bit about BYU. It was a little bit of a shock at first, but I'm getting used to it. I'm pretty happy.'
Powers, for one, was impressed at how readily Savickas adapted to his new environment at BYU.
'He's a fine young man, a very kind person,' he said. 'He fit what BYU was all about like hand and glove.'
Savickas immediately dominated, breaking records left and right en route to being named the WAC Freshman of the Year. In his first year of eligibility, Savickas qualified for the 1998 NCAA Championships, where he chalked up a seventh-place finish in the 200-backstroke and 12th-place standing in the 200-freestyle to earn All-American status.
To follow up last year's accomplishments, Savickas returned this season to turn out a season performance worthy of WAC Swimmer of the Year honors. In the WAC Championships earlier this month, Savickas won conference titles in three events, more than any other swimmer. Savickas competed in this year's NCAA Championships last weekend in Indianapolis and, despite struggling from fatigue, managed to pull out two strong races to end with second-team All-America honors.
While the other Cougar swimmers have hung up their Speedos for the year, Savickas has just begun competition in his most important meets. Coming off the heels of the NCAAs, Savickas begins competition this week in Hong Kong.
This international meet is one of a series of Olympic-qualifying meets Savickas will compete in with the hope of repeating his stint on the Lithuanian national team next year in the summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
'They look at the NCAAs, they look at (Hong Kong), and they look at the European Championships very heavily, which take place this summer in Istanbul,' Powers said.
Savickas, though no stranger to pressure, will likely experience some of its effects this week in Hong Kong.
'I'm not nervous now, but I'm sure I'm going to be nervous when I go there and start swimming,' Savickas said.
A factor in Savickas' performance could be the fatigue he has experienced recently.
'He's complained about declines in his energy level,' Powers said. 'He's gotten some additional rest, but it hasn't kicked in. We'll have to wait until we get back to see if he needs some blood work.'
A finance major, Savickas has struggled to balance the demands of the athletic world and the academic world recently, particularly as he has been away so often as of late for high-profile meets.
'Stress has played heavily on him,' Powers said. 'It's hard when the expectations are to do all of these things that take away from school.' Depending on how he does this week, Savickas could repeat next year as the 12th BYU men's swimmer in history to compete in an Olympic meet. The Hong Kong meet concludes this weekend, with the European Championships taking place in late July.