Quirky Stroke Not Easy For Some.

ATLANTA -- On his third day of lessons at a pool in Philadelphia, 4-year-old Brendan Hansen put his face in the water and did the ''big arm'' freestyle stroke, but with a frog kick instead of a flutter kick. As Hansen recalled, the instructor turned to his mother and said: ''Maybe your son should do something else. He's not really getting this.'' Hansen, a two-time Olympian, a four-time Olympic medalist and a former world record-holder in the breaststroke, told the story to drive home two points: swimmers in his specialty events -- the 100 and 200 breaststroke -- are largely born, not made, and their natural gifts can easily escape the notice of people not attuned to the quirkiest of the four competitive strokes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]