With the Olympics over, swimmer Tara Kirk ‘04 continues to vie for a spot on the US Olympic Swim Team roster, if only for the pride that would accompany being named among the nation’s swimming elite.

Kirk, a 2004 Athens Olympic silver medalist in the 400-meter medley relay, finished third last June at the U.S. Olympic Trials, losing to second-place finisher Megan Jendrick by .01 seconds. First-place finisher and former Cal swimmer Jessica Hardy was the only swimmer under a 1:07 in the 100-meter women’s breaststroke. Hardy, who now trains with Coach Dave Salo at USC looked to be an integral part of the U.S. women’s swimming contingent in Beijing when she qualified for the 4x100 free relay and also the 50m freestyle, where she was second only to 41-year-old swimmer Dara Torres.

Her tremendous showing at the Olympic Trials had Hardy set to swim in three events in Beijing before she officially tested positive for a banned substance on July 24, nearly a month after the trials, as her samples came back positive-negative-positive in the three-sequence procedure used by U.S. Doping Agency. Yet, rather than replacing Hardy with Kirk or another swimmer, as would seem the logical solution to the dilemma, USA Swimming elected instead to replace Hardy in her events with swimmers already on the Olympic squad.

Kirk was unwilling to comment to The Weekly on the matter but wrote on her blog at wcsnblogs.com that she felt snubbed by the decision to leave her off the team.

“USA swimming, citing trials criteria, has declined to add anyone to the team,” she posted on Aug. 2. “However, I think that if you were to ask anyone at Trials what should happen if the first-place finisher were to test positive for a banned substance, they would tell you that 3rd place would move up. Such is the culture of our sport. Not so today.”

“I’m frustrated and disillusioned,” Kirk continued. “But most of all, I am saddened that the people and organizations that I gave a huge part of my life to couldn’t bring themselves to do the right thing. To make this situation right. I do not believe that the will to act could not have changed this situation.”

The swimming community was in uproar over the issue of whether Hardy’s voluntary withdrawal from the team would mean Kirk, Lara Jackson (50-meter freestyle), and Amanda Weir (4x100 free relay) would be put onto the relay. USA Swimming’s governing body officially put the cutoff date at July 21 and Hardy’s results came three days too late to put the three girls onto the team. Kirk filed a case against USA Swimming to overrule the case, but an arbitrator determined that the organization had not violated any rightful procedure in handling the issue.

In a statement on their website, USA Swimming’s Chuck Wielgus defended the organization’s decision to keep Kirk off the team, citing policies already in place.

“The procedures clearly state that we were to submit our entries to the USOC by July 21 and that after July 21 no new swimmers could be added to the team,” Wielgus wrote. “Furthermore, the procedures are very clear about what happens if an athlete withdraws from the team after July 21.”

Still, Kirk has decided to continue her fight to be formally named to the team, despite having already missed the games, as she wrote in a blog entry dated Aug. 19.

“I am still working on this and still fighting [...], if only for the honor,” she wrote. “I will also continue in hopes that the right decisions will be made in similar situations in the future. Though this experience has been terrible, it could only be made worse if I had to watch someone else go through it four years from now and think that if I had only tried harder I could have saved them this sorrow.”

Kirk, a former world record-holder in the 100 short course meter breaststroke, is also an American record-holder in the 100 long course meter breaststroke, and also the 100-yard breast. Her NCAA career with Stanford included 11 career NCAA titles including four in the 100 individual breast and three in the 200 breast.