Melbourne Bound

The pretty, crop-haired blonde had already qualified for the U.S. Olympic swimming team (100-meter free style and 400-meter relay) and set an American 100-meter mark (1:04.6) in the process. Shelley Mann of Washington, D.C.'s Walter Reed Swim Club should have been riding high, relaxed and easy. "But look at her," said her young (24) coach, Stan Tinkham (TIME, April 18, 1955). "You can almost see the adrenaline pumping through her. She'll swim each race a hundred times before she goes into the pool. Maybe that's why she's a champion, or maybe she's a champion despite that tension. I don't know which."

Whatever the reason, bonny Shelley continued to churn out championship performances. On the last night of the Olympic tryouts at Detroit's Brennan pools last week, the tireless 18-year-old won the 100-meter butterfly in 1:12.3, just half a second over her own world record. Even if she has to do it all by herself, Shelley is determined to win her country an Olympic gold medal, something no U.S. woman swimmer could do four years ago at Helsinki.

Hard Work. Shelley Mann's all-out assault on every event within reach has caused plenty of poolside comment. But Stan Tinkham has a ready answer for his critics: "I'm called a nonconformist in my coaching techniques, but this time I think I know what I'm doing. Shelley is the temperamental type and thrives on hard work. It's better for her to be getting ready for two events than for one. Why, in some meets she's gone in three preliminaries, three finals and a relay all the same day, and even set some records in the process."

The U.S. Olympic Committee agrees that Stan has the answers; it has appointed him coach of the women's Olympic team. And after watching Shelley and the rest of the Reed girls operate, Stan's Melbourne-bound squad knows it is in for some rugged training. "Everyone agrees that the way to train swimmers is to keep sending them over long distances," says Coach Tinkham, "so I go about it just the opposite. At Walter Reed [the U.S. Army Hospital in Washington] we swim sprints all the time. That way every swimmer gets her second wind every practice. Of course it's harder work, but it isn't as boring, and it keeps their minds more alert. I guess they hit three or four good peaks a year and then hold them for a week or so. With all the time between now and Melbourne, it'll be no problem to get them all to a peak for that."

No Strain. The tough training routine will be no strain for Shelley. "I have to go all out in every practice," says she. "I can't stand the idea of loafing. It's the only way I can swim without consciously getting tired. I know that I'll be helped in whatever I do by what I've learned from swimming: that there's no reason why I can't do what I want to do and also be good at it."

Such dedication to the daily grind that makes champions is shown by all Stan Tinkham's pupils. For three more of them it paid off with places on the Olympic team: Mary Jane Sears, 16, in the 200-meter breast stroke; Betty Mullen Brey, 24, in the 100-meter free style; Susan Gray, 16, in the 400-meter free style.

Other impressive performers at the Olympic tryouts:

P: Massachusetts' Bill Yorzyk, 23, who won the 200-meter butterfly with a world record 2:19.

P:| The Army's Lieut. Yoshi Oyakawa, 23, of Hawaii, who broke his own Olympic record with 1:05.2 in the 100-meter backstroke.

P: Sylvia Ruuska, 14, of Berkeley, Calif., who set a U.S. record (5:10) in the 400-meter free style, broke the Olympic record by 2.1 sec.

P: Carin Cone, 16, of Ridgewood, N.J., who swam the 100-meter backstroke in 1:14.4 to break her own A.A.U. record by .1 sec.

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