In her sport's highest profile meet of the year featuring competitors from Australia, Japan, Canada and 20 other countries, Jessica Hardy will be busy this week at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Irvine.

On Wednesday, she will be in the 50 butterfly. On Thursday, she will be in the 100 freestyle. On Friday, she will be in the 50 breaststroke and 400 freestyle relay. On Saturday, she finishes off with the 50 freestyle.

That's five events in four days for the 2005 graduate of Wilson High, which is a heavy workload, especially considering that for a tense time during the recent national swimming championships in the same venue it was an uncertain proposition that she would even make it to the Pan Pacific.

After all, on the evening of Aug. 5 at the important affair, Hardy wound up out of the running in her top two disciplines - the 100 breaststroke in which she holds the world record and the 50 freestyle in which she holds the American record.

"I just choked," she said. "I was totally stressed out about having to compete in the two races that went off one race apart from each other.

"I really didn't have enough time to warm down or dry off between the races, but it wasn't the physical part that caused me to do badly. It was the mental part. I just became terrified by the prospect of basically swimming back-to-back events-and it definitely had a negative effect on me."

Forty-eight hours after her unfortunate showings,

Hardy did some sobering reflection during the interlude.

"I realized the worst-case scenario had happened and that my two best events were done with," she said. "I realized I had simply self-destructed. I also knew I was in good shape - about as good as I've ever been in.

"So, suddenly, I began to relax, and the pressure seemed to disappear. Suddenly, I didn't have any expectations. Suddenly, I stopped worrying so much. And so for the 100 freestyle, I was in a focused, fighter's mode. I wasn't nervous and tight like I was for the other ones."

Hardy dispensed a stellar effort, finishing second with a personal-best time of 54.14 - third best in the world this year - that secured her a spot on the national team and opportunity to participate in the Pan Pacific.

Her ambitious schedule this week is of her own choosing.

"The Pan Pacific rules are a little different than most other international meets," she said. "Those who qualify for it can compete in as many events as they want to."

Hardy also would have wanted to compete in the 100 breaststroke, but it will be staged the same night after the 100 freestyle, which she must compete in since that is what she qualified for at the nationals.

Although Hardy has been back swimming competitively since last August, she admits that she's still adjusting from that one year suspension she received for testing positive for clenbuterol before the 2008 Beijing Olympics in which she had qualified in four events.

"I think that whole incident has made me more psychologically fragile," she said. "I tend to analyze everything too closely, tend to take everything personally.

"And I've also had to re-learn how to race, how to handle the stress of it. You just don't stay away from a sport like I did for a year, and come back and be the same immediately. I know I did well in the World Cup last year (she was the female points leader), but I also know I wasn't the same emotionally.

"I know now I feel well, and I'm in terrific shape. I'm really excited that I made the national team and that I'm getting an opportunity to swim in so many events. It's going to be a lot of fun."

What hasn't been fun for Hardy in recent times is having to respond to the constant media queries about her feelings in regard to the long layoff and the failed drug test that's been attributed to a tainted nutritional supplement from Advocare, which had been one of her sponsors.

"I get tired of talking about the suspension and what I went through because of it," she said. "It's hard for me to keep being asked about the negatives in my career when there have been so many positives. I'm now in a good place in my life, and what happened is in the past."

Hardy already has had a frenetic summer, as she's performed in several meets in Europe in addition to the one in Irvine.

She will compete in the Brazilian Nationals next month, in a few World Cup meets in the fall, and in the FINA World Swimming Short Course Championships in Dubai on Dec. 15-19.

"Definitely plan to stay busy," she said.

She and her longtime

boyfriend, the Switzerland Olympic swimmer Dominik Meichtry, also have been busy in recent weeks, relocating from Hollywood to Santa Monica.

"Things have been going well for me," she says. "I had that little bump in the road at the nationals, but I came back to make the team. And, obviously, that was a tremendous positive. I'm satisfied now with the direction I'm headed in"

doug.krikorian@presstelegram.com