Gold In The Water

Synopsis

"'Oh my God, is this really happening?!' It was halfway through the 200-meter breaststroke finals at the 1998 World Championships and the rookie was gliding four feet beneath the water's wind-rumpled surface.Above him, 15,000 spectators were screaming encouragement and millions more were watching on live international television.All of them could see what the rookie and the seven other finalists could not: the actual race as it unfolded. Underwater, the swimmer stole a peek down the length of the pool.That quick glance may have very well changed the course of a career, for from then on, nothing would ever be the same for this athlete.A bucket of adrenaline dumped into his gut and flooded his arms and legs.He wanted to laugh and shout in joyful surprise.Is there any greater joy than feeling unbridled power course through the body at the exact instant it is most needed? The swimmer burst to the surface and began his first stroke with a ferocious arm sweep...."So begins Gold in the Water, the highly acclaimed and mesmerizing tale about the remarkable two-year journey an elite team of swimmers takes to the 2000 Olympic Games. Decades ago, northern California's aged Santa Clara Swim Club, the birthplace of modern swimming, was home to nearly every U.S. Olympic swimmer.Now, after years of irrelevance, a distinctly American renewal is taking place there.In the water, race a young protg and an older mentor, two best friends who have emerged as the world's two best breaststrokers.As they wrestle with their increasingly complex rivalry, around them swim some of the world's most talented athletes.There is a long-retired starlet who has returned to her sport for unexplained reasons and is engineering one of the most remarkable comebacks in sports history.There is an enigmatic butterflyer systematically removing emotion from his Olympic journey while engineering a plan to join his famous father in Olympus.With them is a troubled backstroke