SWIMMING\Swimming color line unbroken.

Byline: Bonnie DeSimone Chicago Tribune 

It was a prospect too improbable to absorb: An African-American swimmer from the Midwest, coached by a white South African, on the brink of breaking a century-old color line.

In the end Sunday, it was adrenaline that undid Byron Davis, the 25-year-old Cleveland native who was bidding to become the first African-American ever to make a U.S. Olympic swimming team. Having overcome a fatherless childhood, an aimless post-adolescence and a spotty competitive career to become one of the nation's top sprinters, he was unable to hold back with the prize in view.

Davis hit the halfway point of the 100-meter butterfly in an unreal 24.05 seconds and paid the price when he seized up in the last few strokes and finished fourth in 53.84.

The two Olympic team slots went instead to a virtual unknown and a teammate of Davis from the Resident National Program in Colorado Springs. John Hargis, a 21-year-old junior at Auburn, came up from an outside lane to win in 53.42, while Mark Henderson, 26, who was last at the turn, finished second.

"Initially, it's a hard pill to swallow," Davis said matter-of-factly after the race. "Because you're saying, 'If I could do one little thing extra, what would have made the difference?"'

Resident national team coach Jonty Skinner was still emotional an hour later. A former world-record holder in the 100-meter freestyle, he was named to the South African Olympic team in 1976 but could not compete because of the International Olympic Committee ban then in effect against that country.

Before the final, Skinner said there was no one in his program he wanted to see succeed as much as Davis, whose swimming career he literally resurrected when he invited him to be a charter member of the program 18 months ago.

"Between the two of us, I don't know who was cracking up worse," Skinner said. "I just told him I loved him. It took me a long time to regain my composure."

The race involved the fastest field in history, with only a half-second separating the eight men. Mel Stewart, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist in the 200-meter butterfly, finished fifth.

Of Hargis, he said, "I don't know who he is. If you don't know your competition, you should get out of the sport."

Another Olympian of four years ago, Summer Sanders, failed to qualify for the team in the event in which she won a silver medal, the 200-meter individual medley. She will have one last chance in the 200-meter butterfly Tuesday.

Kristine Quance continued her roller-coaster meet, making the team in a tight finish-2:13.71 to 2:13.76-behind Allison Wagner in the 200 IM. Quance also qualified in the 100-meter breaststroke, but was disqualified in her best event, the 400 IM, and placed third in the 200-meter breaststroke.

Jessica Foschi, trying to get people to talk about her swimming instead of her failed drug test, qualified sixth among eight swimmers in the preliminaries of the 800 freestyle with a time of 8:44.14. The 15-year-old must place either first or second in today's final to win a trip to the Atlanta Games.

Foschi won the 800 in the U.S. Open last year before the anabolic steroid was detected in a drug test at the summer nationals.

At the trials, she faces a formidable field that includes 15-year-old Olympic wannabe Brooke Bennett and world record holder Janet Evans in their second showdown of the meet.

In the 200-meter breaststroke, Stanford's Kurt Grote took first in 2:14.22 and Atlanta native Eric Wunderlich finished second, earning the chance to swim in his hometown at this summer's Games.