To one teammate, he was "Robo-Chad."

To another, he was "pretty much a given" for the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team.

"Active, driven," is how his mother described him.

Indeed, as he began his final season at the University of Arizona, all cylinders were clicking for swimmer Chad Carvin. The American record-holder in the 1,000-yard freestyle was revving up for the best season of his collegiate career. And then "Robo-Chad " slowly started to break down.

It began with fatigue. For about five or six weeks, he struggled in workouts. Doctors performed tests for mononucleosis and valley fever, but they came back negative. The fatigue, however, persisted.

Something had to be wrong, but what?

"He thought he was losing it mentally because he thought there was nothing wrong with him," says his mother, Judie Carvin.

"He thought he was losing his mind."

Soon thereafter, mid- December last year, doctors found the problem: viral cardiomyopathy, a condition which weakens the heart. He was told to rest for 90 days.

His career at the UA was over, his hopes of competing in the Olympics finished. Skipping his final exams, he went home to Laguna Hills, Calif.

More than a month later, 21-year-old Carvin, is a spectator of the sport which was set to cast him in the spotlight.

As one of the country's best distance swimmers, he went from training four or more hours a day to "not even being able to walk around that much."

It's the longest he has been out of the water since he began swimming, at age 7.

"You're talking about the heart and soul of our team," says Jason Hodder, Carvin's teammate and roommate. "It made people realize anything can happen."

Though the virus has left his body, Carvin must continue to rest. Fearing a reoccurrence, his mother says she asked the doctor if the virus was like chicken pox. Could he catch it again?

"He said, 'No, you only get it once,'" she says. "I said, 'So it's like winning the lottery. If it happens once, it'll never happen again.' He said, 'No, you have a better chance at winning the lottery.'"

He hasn't rushed out to buy Powerball tickets, but that doesn't mean Carvin hasn't felt lucky.

With the Olympic Trials approaching in March, he would have been at the height of his training. Had he contracted the virus a month or two later, Carvin may have been more inclined to put an annoyance such as fatigue out of his mind, attributing the sympt oms to the intensity of the extra practice.

If that were the case - if he had contracted the virus now and not then - the result could have been death.

Suddenly, missing the Olympics seemed a small price to pay.

Carvin says after the 90 days is up, doctors will reevaluate his condition. It could "either be the same as when they first caught it, it can be better, or it can be worse."

Whatever the case, he says he will "definitely" be out of shape, which would make a comeback - if physically possible - a challenge he's not sure he's up to.

"It's such a tough road to get back there," Carvin says. "Some days I get up and I'm thinking, I don't know if I ever want to swim again. Then there's other days where I'm feeling pretty good and feel like I want to make a comeback and see if I can get ba ck to that same level."

His mother says it's a decision he will need to think through thoroughly.

"One big loss is probably enough," she says. "If you count on a total recovery that might not happen, you've got two losses.

"My personal feeling is if he gets the green light from the doctors, he'll probably want to see if he can come back."

But even if he doesn't, he has left behind an impressive resume.

Carvin is a 12-time All-American, a two-time NCAA champion and three-time U.S. national champion. At the 1994 NCAA Championships, he set American records in the 500-yard and 1,650-yard freestyles, which were nine and eight years old, respectively, and two of the longest-standing men's records in swimming. (Both have since been broken.) He also holds five school records.

His coach Frank Busch says he made sure his swimmer remembered this.

"I told him, 'If your career is over, you've accomplished more in your career than 99 percent of everyone else. You've set three American records. Don't lose sight of that,'" Busch says.

Described by many as quiet and shy, Carvin had "opened up a lot since his freshman year," Busch says, which may explain an out-of-character experiment Carvin toyed with last summer.

In July, at the Janet Evans Swimming Invitational in Los Angeles, Carvin showed up to the event with a shaved head - normal, except that what was left of his hair was colored a bright green. His mother laughed, remembering the time "when he was a walking Hi-Liter."

"That's what I told him, 'Your mom has to take a Hi-Liter out to dinner?' That's the wildest thing Chad's ever done," she says.

Skip Kenney, the Olympic swim coach and head of Stanford University's team, said he didn't associate green with Carvin, but rather a more metallic color€gold, silver or bronze, to be exact.

He says he was shocked and disappointed when he first heard the news of Carvin's condition, but that he was glad Carvin would have the chance at a full recovery.

"I was looking forward to being able to coach him," Kenney says. "Perhaps more selfishly, I was looking forward to penciling him in as a medalist. But all that is secondary now to his health. I'm just excited that he's OK."

His mother says, "He's been training for (the Olympics) for eight years. He's focused his whole life for it.

"We just told him even though missing the Olympics is, of course, the major thing, it isn't life. In a whole life, it's a small portion. Eight years is a small portion.

"The important thing is he's alive and there'll be more."

Perhaps even "Robo-Chad: The Sequel."