On Aug. 29, Ilkay Dikmen sat in her Champaign apartment, watching the closing ceremonies of the Athens Olympics on NBC.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she saw the parade of nations and the extinguishing of the Olympic torch.

“I felt horrible watching the closing ceremonies,” Dikmen said. “I felt like I should be there. Sitting there watching commentary, I felt so bad; I wanted to cry.”

Sixteen days earlier, Dikmen had been in Greece, marching in the Opening Ceremonies and preparing to compete in the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke events.

“That’s the best part, when you get out you see the whole crowd, you’ve got your own flag going in front of you,” Dikmen said, her eyes growing wider as she described entering the stadium. “You get out there and everybody starts screaming, flashes are going, everybody’s applauding, cheering for you. You’re just staring with your mouth open. I was shocked. It was so crowded, there were all colors of lights. It was seriously a dream.”

Dikmen is one of the top swimmers from Turkey as well as a four-year leader on the Illini swim team. Although she has finished her NCAA eligibility, Dikmen is still in Champaign, pursuing a degree in kinesiology.

In Athens, Dikmen swam a 2:32.69 for a 19th-place finish in the 200-m breaststroke and 1:11.69 to take 26th in the 100-m.

The Turkish Olympic Committee decided when to send its athletes home; for Dikmen that meant leaving the last day of swimming competition and not being able to watch other events.

“I was only in swimming, I didn’t get to see anything else,” Dikmen said. “When I was there I had to worry about my own thing; I was so tired, I didn’t go out.

“I would like to go see other people who are my teammates; that’s what the Olympics are all about.”

Team player

While the Olympics are widely viewed as the pinnacle of athletic competition, Dikmen said the individual format made them less enjoyable.

“I always get excited for Big Tens here,” she said. “I have a bigger team here that I go with to the races; at the Olympics, we were just nine people.

“I love to be a part of this team, and it was kind of weird that I didn’t have my coach; people know me from there, but I didn’t really have anyone that I could discuss with about how I did. I felt like I was doing everything by myself.”

Although her former club coach was in Athens, Dikmen stayed in touch with Illinois swimming and diving head coach Sue Novitsky throughout the games.

“I’ve been here for four years now, almost,” Dikmen said. “For my coach’s name, I gave Sue’s name because I train with her now. It was kind of weird not to have her there.”

Choosing her path

Dikmen chose to pursue her degree in the United States because doing so allowed her to continue to swim competitively. In Turkey, most athletes end their careers when they begin college, or even earlier when they begin to prepare for the college entrance exam.

“I faced the choice of preparing for the Olympics or preparing for this test,” Dikmen said. “Since one of them was already my goal I just went for that. Then I got a scholarship here and I saw that I could still swim here, while swimming really ends when you’re 18 at home.”

Dikmen plans to pursue a degree in physical therapy, although she entered the University as an engineering major.

“Most of my Olympic teammates are going to be coaches and stuff, and I don’t want to be a coach just because I did a sport.”

World Traveler

Dikmen first competed in the Olympics in Sydney in 2000.

“Sydney was very far, so we had to travel as a whole team, the whole flight was ours. And then on that way back we had to come back all together, which I really liked,” Dikmen said.

“When I was in Sydney we got there five or six days before just to get adjusted to the water and the weather and everything. Then after we were done we had another five or six days which we got to see Sydney.”