Although Amanda Beard moved on from the UA swimming team to the pro ranks three years ago, the retail and consumer sciences junior is still enrolled and trains with the team at the Hillenbrand Aquatics Center. The four-time Olympic medallist and current 200-meter breaststroke world record holder took time out from training for the approaching Olympic trials to tell the Wildcat how to properly store a gold medal, debunk urban myths and protest the picture choice in ESPN's Hottest Female Athlete contest.

Wildcat: As a child phenom, you were already famous before coming to the UA (Beard won three Olympic medals in 1996, at the age of 15). What made you want to come here?

Beard: Well, I originally thought I just wanted to stay in California. I was looking at Cal and UCLA. Frank Busch, the UA coach, approached me, and I said, "OK, why not?" I took a trip out here, and ended up liking Arizona the best. I love the coaching staff, and the weather's just as nice as California.

Wildcat: You're still working out with the team. Training for Olympics?

Beard: Yeah, I'm in full training for the Olympic trials, which start in July. And then, hopefully, the Olympics.

Wildcat: How's that going?

Beard: So far, so good. It looks pretty good, but you never know.

Wildcat: You turned pro three years ago. Why did you want to stick around here to train?

Beard: I just felt that this was the best place for me to train. The coaching staff is amazing, and I don't think I could have this kind of success at any other program.

Wildcat: Is it strange still practicing with a team that you don't compete with anymore?

Beard: It is a little strange. It's nice to see the team. On a non-college team, like a club team, you don't get the same kind of unity. It's kind of cool to be kind of part of the team, but an outsider. I get to just stay and help out at dual meets, and stuff like that.

Wildcat: What about when you have to miss school to go to a meet? You can't exactly get a dean's excuse as a professional athlete, can you?

Beard: No. (Laughs) It's really hard. That's why I can't take very many classes. I'm taking three classes this semester, and it's driving me crazy, it's so hard. I'll miss a couple weeks at a time. I end up missing almost half of the semester every semester. I don't tell my teachers that I'm an athlete. I try to just deal with it as best I can. I don't want to use athletics as an excuse ÷ some of the teachers don't look very kindly on that.

Wildcat: I know you've won multiple Olympic medals, and at least one gold at the World Championships. How many medals do you have?

Beard: Well, a lot (laughs). But the ones I really like are my Olympic medals. I have a gold, two silvers and a bronze. I also got a gold and two silvers at world champs this past summer.

Wildcat: When you have a gold Olympic medal, what do you do with the bronze and silver, use them as paperweights?

Beard: (Laughs) No, you know, I'm more proud of my bronze medal than any of the other ones. That's the one I got in 2000, and that one was extremely difficult for me to get, I think. There was a lot of hard work, a lot of sweat, and all that fun stuff that went into that one. So it's not really just the gold that's so great. I'm really proud of that bronze medal.

Wildcat: I was reading your interview in Men's Fitness earlier this year ·

Beard: Oh, no.

Wildcat: · and you said you keep your gold medals in your underwear drawer. Is that true, and if so, why there?

Beard: It is true, but I might have to move it because I keep mentioning that. I might have to place it somewhere else. It just seems like a safe place. I have no idea why. I just think that whoever's going to be looking through my underwear drawer should just be me, so ·

Wildcat: Don't they make display cases for them or something?

Beard: They do. Actually, at my dad's house I have a display case for them. I pack them in a carrying case, because I have to travel with them a lot. Everyone does something different with them. I think eventually, when I'm older and I want to brag about myself when I was younger, then I'll display them. But right now, I don't really feel the need to.

Wildcat: Speaking of that Men's Fitness article · do questions like "How do you maintain your incredible body" offend you at all, or are you comfortable with being a sex symbol?

Beard: Well, I don't really think of myself as a sex symbol. I don't mind those questions at all, and I think the way I look at it is that I'm an athlete, and I'm not some stick-skinny model. I work very hard to get the kind of body that I have, and I think that that's more being a role model than not eating and starving myself. So I'm fine with that, people can take it any way that they want. But I don't hope that little kids are looking at that picture, actually · (laughs).

Wildcat: Were you nervous about that picture at all (www.mensfitness.com/life/16)? It wasn't really a revealing picture, but still ·

Beard: No, it wasn't. My dad was actually really excited, because the page's crease goes right where my boobs are. He was not · he was really happy with the fold. Actually, I was very comfortable with it. It wasn't very revealing. It wasn't bad. It was fun.

Wildcat: Speaking of pictures, three current or former Wildcats were contestants in ESPN's Hottest Female Athlete contest, and you were one of them.

Beard: That was the worst photo they ever put up!

Wildcat: Yeah, Jamie Sale, the figure skater, gets this airbrushed magazine photo, and in your picture, you're in the pool and there's a shadow covering half of your face.

Beard: I know, huh? It's right after a race and I'm all exhausted. When I saw that, I was like, "Thanks, people!"

Wildcat: They didn't contact you beforehand?

Beard: No, they didn't. Actually, when my agents saw that, they contacted them and told them, "This is ridiculous. There's tons of pictures of her, at least pick something kind of decent ÷ not that." There's a lot better ones. I don't mind, I don't care. But I thought it was funny that they chose that one for a "hot female athlete" thing.

Wildcat: I heard you were on the "Big Urban Myth" show on MTV, too. What was that all about?

Beard: Yeah, I did that. It was actually for a myth which I've never heard before. The myth was, "Does swimming breaststroke make your breasts larger?" (Laughs) And I had never heard that urban myth before; I think they just kind of make these things up as they go.

Wildcat: So that's MTV, ESPN, Men's Fitness · it seems like you're really getting out there in the media. Is that something you like?

Beard: Yeah, I do, as long as it doesn't take away from my training. That's what's bringing all these other things to my life, so as long as I keep a focus on what I'm really supposed to do in the pool, and have these other things to kind of just enjoy, that's fine.

Wildcat: So last year around this time, one of the spring training guys came into town and ran off with Jennie Finch, another of the UA's contestants in the Hottest Female Athlete contest. Is there any chance of some signing-bonus baby coming in and sweeping you off your feet?

Beard: (Laughs) I have no idea. Probably not.