By Eric Sprott (Contact / Staff Bio)
March 29, 2008 - 12:15 a.m. EST

CLEMSON — When she first started swimming for Team Greenville coach Scott Bonine, Christine Hughes knew she wanted to be serious about the sport, but didn't really think about just how far it could take her.

It wasn't until recently she had even begun to give a second thought to it until Bonine brought it to her attention.

"My coach kind of put it in my mind a couple of months ago that I might be able to make it far, so I kind of took an idea and decided to run with it," Hughes said.

The Daniel High School junior first started swimming for Team Greenville, the local USA Club swimming team, when she was in the seventh grade, where she began a schedule of swimming twice a day, six days a week, including 7 a.m. on Saturdays, which she continues to this day.

That regimen has groomed Hughes into one of the state's finest competitors in the 100 meter breaststroke, and she is just one step away from competing for the United States in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

She qualified for a spot at the Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, Neb. following a strong showing in a regional meet in Nashville, Tenn., and will compete with some of the nation's top swimmers for a chance to represent her country on the world stage.

As she approached her chance to qualify for the Olympic trials, Hughes took it in stride and aimed as high as she could.

"I knew what the cut was before I swam the race, so that was my goal, and I made it by three tenths of a second," she said.

With her time of 1:12.24 seconds in tow, Hughes will head to Omaha for the event that will last from June 29 through July 6, although her event will only last one day.

And though she was calm and collected as she finished her qualifying race in Nashville, Hughes is now almost speechless about the scale on which she has succeeded, and amazed that she will be competing with countless record-holders in Omaha.

But still, the local product is doing her best to keep a level head.

"The whole thing is kind of surreal, but I’m not any different though," she said. "Part of me is still in awe of how awesome these swimmers are and I’m actually going to be there with them. But then part of me knows I earned it."

"I wouldn’t consider myself one of them, but I’m getting to their level."

As she is now preparing to be a peer with such record-holders as Michael Phelps in Omaha, Hughes already has an impressive resume during her young swimming career.

In addition to her commitments with Team Greenville, Hughes swims with the relatively new Daniel High swim team under head coach Charlotte Bruner.

During the state meet on October 13 of last year, Hughes set a state record in the 100-yard breast stroke with a time of 1:06.07, and also took home a state title in the 100-yard freestyle event.

And while she said she would like to extend that record during her senior year, Hughes is focused squarely on getting ready for Omaha, although she doesn't plan on doing much different with her training.

"Over the summer I don’t think I’m going to do everything too different," she said. "I’ll do doubles where I swim twice a day, so that’ll be in preparation for the event."

She also has a plan for getting ready for Omaha as the events approaches, as she and her family will arrive in town ahead of time to become acclimated with her surroundings and get warmed up, per advice from Coach Bonine.

"My coach told to me that when I go there, I won’t be a fan anymore and I’ll actually be in the meet," she said.

As for how she'll fare in competition, Hughes is trying to keep everything in perspective, and is taking a bit of a pessimistic approach.

Just an apperance in the semifinals would mean the world to the Daniel High product, as she knows making an Olympic appearance this time around would be against the odds.

"The chances of me doing that aren’t very likely, but there’s always some possibility that I’ll have an awesome meet," she said. "But maybe I’ll make it in 2012."

But regardless of whether her Olympic dreams come true on this attempt, or possibly a few years down the road, Hughes can't complain with a trip to compete on the national stage with the best swimmers the country has to offer.

For taking the idea Coach Bonine gave her and running with it, she knows what she's done so far in her career is more than most people could ever ask for.

"My coach always told me I could get there if I wanted to, but I don’t think I really believed it until recently, and I think I’ll call it a success even if I don’t make semifinals just because I made it there," she said.