B A FEW YEARS AGO, Lawrence Frostad was not unlike a lot of American men. He liked to eat, a lot, and he had the body to prove it. He knew the Dominoes Pizza number by memory. He never met a burger or a beer he didn't like, and he exercised half-heartedly. All of which left him with skinny arms and legs - and a gut that hung over his belt when he sat. When he stepped onto the scale, it was with one eye covered. Once he stepped onto the scale and the needle didn't stop until it reached . . . (imagine sirens, bells and whistles sounding) 183 pounds.
At 5-foot-10, Lawrence Frostad was overweight.No. Lawrence Frostad was FAT.
This would be unremarkable except that Lawrence Frostad also was trying to become - don't laugh - a world-class swimmer. Honest. He was some 40 pounds overweight and trying to swim the mile.
Picture the Queen Mary with an Evinrude.
Frostad was surely the only swimmer in history with the nickname of Pillsbury Doughboy. Or Rolley Polley. He contrasted greatly from the lanky, lean men
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he called his teammates.
"You don't look like a swimmer," people would say to him suspiciously.
But Mark Schubert, a U.S. Olympic swim coach, saw something different. "I recognized he was a tremendous talent," says Schubert. "Just his technique and his abiity to train hard."
After floundering in junior college and college, Frostad came to Schubert in 1988 to see if he could become as good as he thought he could be. When he showed up for his second workout with Schubert's team, they lined up single file for a weigh-in - not one of Frostad's favorite rituals. He was second in line, which meant there was a big audience when he stepped onto the scale. Schubert looked at the numbers. One sixty-seven.
"Now that you're one of my swimmers, you've got to lose 25 pounds if you want to swim in the Olympic Trials," said Schubert loud enough for all to hear.
This wasn't exactly an original idea. Frostad had been told the same thing since he took up the sport as a 6-year-old. But when a coach of Schubert's caliber speaks, it carries more, ahem, weight. Six weeks later, Frostad, weighing 139 pounds, placed fourth in the U.S. Olympic Trials - one place away from the Olympic Games.
For the first time in his life, Frostad began to believe he really could become a world-class swimmer. In the four years since then - years in which he has battled weight problems of a different kind - he has proven as much.
Later this month, Frostad, who has spent the past month training in Salt Lake City, will swim in the Olympic Games. He'll take the third fastest time in the world in the 1,500-meter freestyle to Barcelona.
Not bad for a reformed fat man who never placed in the top 16 in the NCAA championships. Less than two years ago he still hadn't won so much as a national championship.
Ever since he can remember, Frostad was overweight. He figured the weight would come off naturally with time. After all, his parents are lean, and so are his siblings (his sister Holly is a model). But not Lawrence. The problem only worsened in high school and college.
"I partied a lot," says Frostad, who still managed to drag his barge fast enough to win high school All-America honors. "Most people have a sweet tooth. I have a grease tooth. Whenever I was bored, I ate."
He never tried to lose weight, figuring diets "were for girls," until Schubert came along. Then he managed to shed the weight all on his own. "I just exercised more," he says. "I didn't train hard at the time. I just went through the motions. Now I work hard, and I can eat anything."
After his showing in the '88 Olympic Trials, Frostad figured all he had to do was keep the weight off to reach stardom, but a year later he overdid it. His weight dropped to 130 pounds. Sometimes he would go four days without eating. He claims now he was merely upset with the University of Miami coaches and their program ("The coaches didn't show up for workouts," he says. "They didn't care. It wasn't organized.") Finally, his coaches ordered him to take six months off from swimming and to seek counseling for his eating disorder; he was three pounds away from being forceably hospitalized.
Frostad's weight eventually stabilized at 145 pounds during the next few months, and he resumed swimming, but his collegiate career ended unspectacularly; he never scored a single point in an NCAA meet.
Immediately after leaving Miami, Frostad rejoined Schubert. Six weeks later he won his first national championship. In the last 20 months he has won five national titles. At the Olympic trials earlier this year, he earned his first Olympic berth with a second-place finish in the 1,500-meter freestyle race.
When Frostad takes the plunge at the Olympics, he'll be wearing a "woman's suit" - a one-piece model similar to those worn by many track athletes these days. He claims it has more buoyancy and is slicker than shaved skin. Fortunately, at 145 pounds, he has the body to wear the thing these days.