DOLAN SEEKS GAMES' RARIFIED AIR.

Byline: Dave Fairbank Newport News (Va.) Daily Press

Inhale. Exhale.

Simple acts performed hundreds of times a day, automatically and without thought. For Olympic swimmer Tom Dolan, however, not a day, not an hour goes by that he doesn't think about breathing.

Dolan, a 20-year-old Arlington, Va., native, has compensated for asthma and a narrow windpipe with physical gifts and a competitive spirit that borders on masochism.

``I know I've gone through more than anyone else in the world,'' Dolan said recently at a pre-Olympic gathering in Atlanta.

Dolan, a former All-American at Michigan, is the United States' best hope for Olympic swimming gold in Atlanta. He is the world-record holder in the 400-meter individual medley and was the U.S. Swimmer of the Year in 1994 and '95. He won three events at the Olympic team trials in Indianapolis last spring - the 200-and 400-meter IM and the 400 freestyle - and he has an opportunity to win four gold medals at the Games.

The Olympic hype machine has christened Dolan the next big thing in American swimming, following in the footsteps of Mark Spitz, John Naber, Janet Evans and Matt Biondi.

Dolan ignores the public relations and concentrates on his goals: breathing and competing. And not necessarily in that order.

``One of his greatest assets is his competitiveness,'' said University of Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek, an assistant on the U.S. Olympic team. ``He feels like there's no limits, and he just keeps pushing himself. Sometimes he needs to be restrained.''

Dolan's physical limitations provide plenty of restraint. He has exercise-induced asthma, exacerbated by allergies, and a narrow esophagus that allows him only 80 percent of the oxygen intake of the average person.

For a person to remain athletically active with those shortcomings is remarkable. To become a world-record holder is mind-boggling.

``It requires mentally and physically everything you have,'' Dolan said. ``That's what I do. When I'm in the water, I'm going to push myself to the limit. I know I must love it.''

Dolan, with an inhaler as his constant poolside companion, pushes himself to exhaustion. He constantly makes himself dizzy and has passed out occasionally during workouts from lack of oxygen. He has gone to the hospital emergency room twice in the past eight months, the first time last Christmas when the Wolverines were in Hawaii training and competing.

``He's disciplining his body to do more work with less oxygen,'' Urbanchek said. ``In all the bad, something good comes out of it. It's like he's training at high altitude all the time.''

Late last summer Urbanchek and Dolan devised a training regimen in which he swam approximately 12 miles per day, pointing toward the Olympics. Dolan threw himself into the routine, but wore out in the process, and his father, Bill, put his foot down and insisted his son cut back.

``He never fully developed what I call self-preservation techniques,'' Bill Dolan said. ``Where you and I would say, `Bag it,' Tom will continue to train until he simply can't go any more.''

Tom Dolan responded to the decreased workload by winning the 400-yard and 1,650-yard freestyle and 400-yard IM at the NCAA Championships, becoming the first man since Biondi to win three events at back-to-back NCAA meets.

He followed that with his performance at the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, where he eased up a bit at the end of the 400 IM and still finished only four-tenths of a second off his own world record of 4:12.30.

``I didn't really want to break it here,'' he said at the time. ``I wanted to leave some of the good times for Atlanta.''

Dolan is blessed with a body that is nearly perfect for swimming. He stands 6-foot-6 and has large hands and size-15 feet capable of moving a lot of water. He also has exceptionally long arms so that when he extends them out from his body, from fingertip to fingertip, his wingspan is greater than his height.

Former world-class swimmer Rowdy Gaines, now a color commentator for NBC, said Dolan's form is best appreciated beneath the surface and has said Dolan is the most beautiful swimmer in the world underwater.

But technique is only part of the story. Dolan played all sports growing up, but concentrated on swimming at age 13 when he began to show promise nationally.

``When he was 8, he wanted to beat the 12-year-olds, and he couldn't fathom why he wasn't beating them,'' Bill Dolan said. ``I'd say, `Because they're older.' But that wasn't a good enough reason for him. He always had that fire.''

Dolan's competitive streak comes honestly. His grandfather, a retired pathologist, was a three-sport star in college and is a member of the University of Rhode Island athletic Hall of Fame. Athletically active in his younger days, Bill Dolan is a successful trial attorney who campaigned unsuccessfully for the Virginia state attorney general's position in 1993 and plans to run again.

Dolan's mother, Jef, has been a runner for more than 20 years. Sister Kathleen, who recently completed her first year of law school, also was a competitive swimmer growing up.

Tom Dolan recently said he wouldn't be in the position he's in if not for Kathleen. She is three years older, and when she turned 16 and got her driver's license, she became the designated driver to swim practice.

``She was the one who dragged his fanny out of bed,'' Bill Dolan said. ``On mornings when he didn't want to go, she stood there and harassed him until he got up. He was more physically gifted than she was, but she became kind of a role model for him, from a work-ethic standpoint.''

Dolan has become something of a role model himself, receiving dozens of letters from asthmatics and breathing-impaired people who see him as an inspiration.

He dismisses attempts to portray him as a spokesman for his generation. When he's not in the pool these days, he's often eating or sleeping. He even had to shelve the turntables and extensive rap and hip-hop collection he uses to be his alter ego, deejay MC Mass Confusion.

``I don't pay enough attention to represent my generation,'' he said.

Dolan recently gave up his final year of eligibility at Michigan so he could accept the $1,200-per-month stipend from U.S. Swimming, which also has promised $25,000 to any American gold medalist. He also signed a two-year endorsement contract with Nike reportedly worth approximately $100,000, not including bonuses based on how he does in Atlanta.

``It was not easy,'' Dolan said of giving up his eligibility. ``The best time I've ever had was winning the NCAA championship as a team. But this is a small window of opportunity.''

Competing in the Olympics has been a dream of Dolan's almost since he began swimming, his father said. From the time he started signing autographs at age 13, he always signed his name and then wrote below it, ``USA No. 1.''

Dolan will do everything in his power to prove that this month. He will gasp and wheeze and have a hard time catching his breath after each race, but whatever the outcome he will have no regrets.

``He believes he's had to work harder in practice than anybody else in the world,'' Bill Dolan said. ``Maybe he has and maybe he hasn't, but he believes he has. When he gets to a meet he feels that physically it's easier than everything he's had to do day-to-day.''