By Mike Watkins/Correspondent

Weeks, even months, before she stepped onto the blocks for her first event at the 2008 Olympic Trials, Amanda Weir was expecting disaster in the water.

After swimming a blistering 53.58 in 2006 to shatter the American record in the 100 freestyle at the ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships, expectations, both personal and from others, were at an all-time high for her to make her second Olympic team and lead female U.S. sprinters back to the top of the podium on the world’s biggest stage.

It was, after all, one of the reasons she left the swim team at the University of Southern California (USC) after just one semester to turn pro in 2006.

What happened instead gripped Weir’s psyche for months. She swam some of the worst races of her career and failed to make the Olympic team in any of her events – not even as a member of the 400 freestyle relay, for which she won a silver medal in Athens in 2004.

At the time, she said it felt like it was the worst thing that could have happened. But now, with time having passed and a new perspective guiding her in and out of the pool, Weir said she’s living and swimming with a much different attitude and outlook.

“Trying to pull it together at Olympic Trials after such inconsistent racing and preparing the two years before that was like watching a car wreck happen – and I think on some level, I knew it was going to be a disaster in the end,” she said. “I had a really hard time making the transition to professional swimming and dealing with the pressure.

“All of a sudden, I felt like I was swimming because it was my job, and people had all these expectations of me. I've since realized that the pressure is only coming from myself, and that being a professional athlete is really very simple: keep competing while its fun and opportunities are available, or move onto the next phase of my life.”

While the experience proved to be one of the greatest disappointments in her life, Weir said it made her realize that she loved the sport of swimming and wanted to make the most of it.

Now that a few years have passed and her vision is a little clearer about how and why things happened as they did, she said she knows she’s better for it. She doesn’t take her races as seriously, and a bad swim doesn’t ruin her week or weekend any more.

And it’s showing in her results. So far in 2012, she has had some of the fastest in-season swims of her career at Grand Prix meets in Minneapolis, Austin and Missouri. In the 50 free in Minneapolis, she edged a loaded field that included 2008 silver medalist Dara Torres as well as Missy Franklin, Kara Lynn Joyce and Jessica Hardy and also finished third in the 100 free.

In Austin, Weir swam the fastest races of the season in winning both the 50 (25.23) and 100 (54.14) freestyles, and followed up last weekend with victories in both events in Missouri.

Suffice it to say, the young woman who started swimming at 8 years old when she brought home a flyer from school about club swimming, is truly enjoying her season and is excited to see where she can take her swimming leading up to and at Trials in Omaha on her way to London this June and July.

“I'm really pleased with how things have gone so far this year,” said Weir, who continues to train with her longtime coach (and new father-in-law) Chris Davis at Swim Atlanta. “I wanted to put together a consistent season to have the confidence I need going into Trials. My times have been right on track for where I want to be this summer, especially the second 50 splits in the 100. To be honest, the 100 free in Austin was probably the strongest I've felt since 2006.”

In addition to her change in viewpoint about her swimming, Weir attributed her focus and results this year to the plan she and Davis put together at the beginning of 2012.

She said she has always done a lot of middle distance training for the 100 (and enjoys it), but as her 50 has continued to improve over the past few years, she had to find a balance between power work and aerobic work.

“We haven’t made any drastic changes to my training, but we are really just fine-tuning the little things, like starts, breakouts and underwater work,” said Weir, who married her coach’s son, also named Chris Davis, last October and said she’s found even more peace in her married life. “Also, I have been doing reformer Pilates since September, and I’ve noticed so much of a difference in my core strength and flexibility.”

Now, with Swim Trials just four months away, Weir said she is all about enjoying the experience in getting there and being fulfilled and happy along the way.

“I am much more relaxed now,” said Weir, who is thinking about pursuing a future in interior design or art when she’s done with competitive swimming. “Before 2008, I would dread getting on the blocks; fearful of what it would do to me if I had a bad swim. Now it's pretty simple – if things don't go as planned, I'll just move on to the next phase of my life and I'm at peace with that.

“This outlook has definitely impacted my swimming this year. I'm making the most out of every race and flat out refuse to ever get as nervous as I was for races leading up to Trials in 2008 because that was just not a fun way to swim and right now in my swimming, it’s all about having fun and enjoying every moment.”