Hardy's Dream Over

Jessica Hardy's Olympic dream is done, but her nightmare may not be over.

Yes, she's tested positive for a banned substance. Yes, she's not going to be able to fulfill her dream and say that she was an Olympian. But her dream may be over of ever going to the Olympics. As of right now, Hardy is done with swimming competition. She's banned for at least two years. Yeah, she can train. She can swim exhibitions. But there isn't anything like swimming against the best in the world to see where you stack up.

I know that Hardy is good. I saw her swim at Cal. She works hard. She'll probably be able to bounce back from this, but if she doesn't get her penalty softened, she may lose time to be able to make a splash in London for the 2012 Games.

US Swimming also botched this one badly, and Christine Brennan of the (admirable, but-you-know-its-not-always-there) USA Today agrees that the suits at USA Swimming should have handled Hardy's situation better.

Tara Kirk, Lara Jackson and Amanda Weir should have replaced Hardy in three different events in Beijing, as they were the ones who finished third (or fifth in Weir's case) in their respective events at the trials in July. Instead, current members of the US National Team will swim in Hardy's place.

This probably happened because it was political. And it was political because the coaches probably didn't want to replace Hardy. Especially if you look who is on the coaching staff (current Cal head coach and Hardy's former coach in Teri McKeever). I don't know how much power McKeever wields in the politics of USA Swimming, but when you're star prodigy is Natalie Coughlin, I'm pretty sure you hold a lot of power. (I'll have more on that later, probably after the Games, or maybe during, who knows).

But what I do know is that Hardy is out and her fight to get into the pool has just started. Too bad Kirk (even though she went to Stanfurd), Jackson and Weir don't get to wear the colors in a week or so.