When Mike Alexandrov took his first awestruck steps onto the Olympic pool deck in Athens, Greece, for the 200-meter freestyle, he made sure to look up at the Bulgarian flag like he always does. Then it was business as usual.

Unlike most Northwestern students who watched the 2004 Summer Olympics from their air-conditioned living rooms, Alexandrov was there to compete. The Sofia, Bulgaria-born NU sophomore swam in three Olympic events for his native country — the 200-meter freestyle, breaststroke and individual medley.

“It’s totally different to walk out at the Olympics and see the crowd, so much bigger, so much louder,” said Alexandrov, a first team All-Big Ten selection last season. “I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be, but the pressure was a lot higher.

“To hear that people were rooting for you from Champaign, from Chicago, from Sofia … wow. That’s crazy.”

Alexandrov, 19, moved to the United States when he was 10 years old and graduated from Centennial High School in Champaign, Ill. High-profile swimming runs in his family, as his father, Plamen, swam the 100-meter breaststroke for Bulgaria at the 1980 Moscow Games.

But these games were all about Mike.

Thanks to pre-Olympic team training in Belmeken, Bulgaria, which has a 7,500-foot altitude similar to that of Athens, Alexandrov was well-prepared for his races and was pleased with how he swam.

While he didn’t place high enough to qualify for the finals in his three events, Alexandrov broke a Bulgarian record in the 200-meter individual medley, turning in an overall 18th-place time of 2:02.3.

“I’m not sure how to describe how I expected to feel after the Olympics, but I expected to feel different than I do,” he said. “Now I’m just humbled and have so much respect for athletes trying to make it — for any athlete trying to make any team, any best time.”

During the 20-day training camp in the sports-oriented Belmeken, which Alexandrov likens to a vacation, he made good friends with the six other Bulgarian swimmers, a couple of whom also attend school in America. Representing his country on the world stage instilled a greater sense of sportsmanship in him, Alexandrov said.

While he didn’t walk with his fellow Bulgarian Olympic teammates in the Opening Ceremonies — he had a race the next morning — he could hear the festivities from his room as he tucked in for the night. Alexandrov said he’s proud he could participate in something so prestigious.

One of the highlights for many Olympic athletes, including Alexandrov, was living in the college dorm-like Olympic Village. He noted Australian swimming phenom Ian Thorpe, U.S. track and field sprinter Maurice Greene and 7-foot-6 NBA center Yao Ming as some of the most remarkable athletes he met around the Village.

“I come up to here on Yao,” laughed the 6-foot-4 Alexandrov, pointing to the middle of his chest.

When he wasn’t at the pool, Alexandrov played spectator at some track and field events, a water polo match and beach volleyball games — the latter known for its party atmosphere of scantily-clad dancers and rowdy fans.

“That was really awesome,” Alexandrov grinned. “I don’t think they’d allow all that here.”

Regardless of how he worked up his appetite, be it competing or watching from the sidelines, Alexandrov always had plenty of exotic food options at the Olympic Village to choose from, although a nagging pulled wisdom tooth infection caused him to be a little more choosy about what he ate during the Games.

“[The food court] was like, the size of four football fields,” Alexandrov said. “We could have anything we wanted. The Greeks treated us so well, serving, helping us eat right.”

While Alexandrov focused on his races, he still made time to keep in touch with friends and family, and even posted journal entries on nusports.com through e-mails to NU men’s swimming coach Bob Groseth.

“Mike is a serious swimmer that likes to have fun,” Groseth said. “Like all swimmers, he doesn’t like to lose, but he has a good attitude for racing, a zest for competing.

“Going to the Olympics had been one of his goals for some time now.”

Alexandrov is the first NU swimmer to swim in an Olympics during Groseth’s 12 years at the Wildcats’ helm, and the coach is excited about how the sophomore is helping further NU’s reputation as a serious swimming school.

“From a recruiting standpoint, it’s been a lot easier,” Groseth said. “We’re already on the list for some good high school swimmers. We don’t have to tell them about our program, they already know.”

In addition to Alexandrov, the Cats will be led this year by three swimmers who participated in the U.S. Olympic Trials in Long Beach, Calif., in July.

Although they didn’t qualify for Athens, Matt Grevers, Brian Davis and Louis Torres made respectable showings.

Still living off a post-Olympic glow, Alexandrov is preparing for the World Short Course Championships in Indianapolis in October, and beyond that, the start of the Big Ten season.

And he’s already thinking about the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

“2008 is one of my peak possibilities,” he said. “I’ll be 23 — probably my highest chance for doing well.”

Reach Ariel Alexovich at [email protected]