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Chad Carvin won the gold medal for the 400-meter freestyle at the Spring National Swimming Championship. A 24-year-old from Southern California, Chad also finished fourth in the 200-meter freestyle. His400-meter victory was not only his 12th national title, but a sign of his strength and determination.

After a series of tests in 1995, it was discovered that his heart was working at 50% of its capacity. Chad had a condition known as viralcardiomyopathy. Three months later, his heart returned to normal and he returned to his regular activities. He continued swimming and in April of 1997, won four titles in the Spring Nationals. During the summer of the same year, he helped a friend move furniture one weekend. Thefollowing Monday, he woke up with severe back pains. It gotprogressively worse and by November, tests showed two partly torn disks and two bulging disks. He was discouraged and decided to give up swimming altogether. But in the Spring of 1998, sulfate pills had eliminated the back pain. In May, he started swimming again and quickly regained his old strength. In August, he won the 5K Summer Open-WaterRace and since then he has been hard to stop.

This come-back kid isn’t just a great swimmer; he also has a variety of interests. He loves to surf three times a week and enjoys cycling andskateboarding as well. He plays the guitar, makes pottery and bakes bread too. According to Chad, pumpernickel is the toughest!

Chad has his eye on the 2000 Olympics. It looks like he’s right on target and having a lot of fun along the way!