Matters of the Heart – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swim & Dive
Oct. 21, 2006
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Anesa Beard ooh’d and aahh’d while looking through the 2006 Speedo catalogue. Turning page after page, the senior Ohio State diver announced she was going to buy herself a “welcoming” present. After a period of indecisiveness, Beard settled on a colorful swimsuit adorned with skulls as the perfect mixture of enthusiasm and attitude to represent her return to the sport of diving.
Beard began her diving career at the age of 12, transferring to the sport after sustaining knee injuries in gymnastics. Not willing to abandon her love of flipping and twisting, she was encouraged to try hurdling into water rather than on the ground. Beard displayed natural skills contorting her body in the air, which were honed by her high school coach, John Wingfield.
While in high school, Beard received multiple awards and was afforded the opportunity to dive internationally in France, Germany, Amsterdam and Switzerland. She was her high school’s MVP, team captain and recipient of the team’s sportsmanship award. She was an Indiana state finalist, as well as a 12-time Junior Indoor and Outdoor National qualifier. She is currently the Franklin Community High School and pool record holder.
As a high school student-athlete who enjoyed success on the springboards, Beard was highly sought after from the top diving schools in the country. She entertained offers from the likes of Texas, Alabama, Auburn and Purdue. However, after visiting The Ohio State University, the Indiana native knew she was destined to join the Buckeye legacy. “Ohio State has a strong tradition of having a great diving program,” Beard said. “There have been many Olympians who went to Ohio State, and there are always top diving coaches. When I went on my recruiting trip I just fell in love with it.”
After more than 12 years as an athlete, Beard has long been a student to the school of overcoming obstacles. So, when she was diagnosed with Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT), a condition which causes abnormal electrical impulses and an irregular heartbeat, Beard was equipped with the tools to bounce back from the unnerving situation.
Beard’s struggle with SVT began in December 2005 when chest pains, dizziness, shortness of breath and a racing heart began to impose upon her rigorous practices. In addition to the pressures of college athletics and academics, Beard had the added stress of health complications and doctors struggled to identify the problem. The education major was required to wear a heart monitor for a month and undergo a series of tests, after which doctors remained inconclusive on her condition. However, not one to be defeated by physical pain, Beard continued to train through the discomfort.
“The fact is she had the problem a long time before the diagnosis,” Vince Panzano, Ohio State diving coach, said. “Even though she was struggling, she refused to stop practicing or even cut back in her training.”
However, as the new year set in, so did the pain in Beard’s chest. At times, her heart rate would reach upwards of 200 beats per minute while she was physically inactive. It was at this time team doctors refused to allow her to practice any longer.
“I wanted to compete for my team,” Beard said, “but I guess they just didn’t want me to pass out and drown to the bottom of the pool.”
Beard underwent a heart procedure Jan. 10 in which doctors were set to ablate her heart, a process in which radiofrequency energy destroys cells in a small portion of the heart. If successful, the extra impulses causing the rapid heartbeat would cease. However, during the operation was brought to a halt because the problem was too close to her atriovnetricular (AV) node. Surgeons needed Beard’s consent to continue because they risked causing a heart blockage if the AV node was hit. Doctors then explained to the diver that her gravity-defying days were over and she would need a second heart surgery in which a pacemaker could be required. Devastated by the news, Beard was forced to wait two weeks while she healed from the first surgery before undergoing a second. On Jan. 24, doctors went through Beard’s groin and successfully rerouted the electricity of her heart, a procedure that normally requires open-heart surgery.
“With medicine being what it is, they were able to fix theproblem without open heart surgery,” Panzano said. “Columbus is one of the few places that could do that. She was therefore afforded a much faster recovery.”
And recover quickly is exactly what Beard did. While the recovery time for such a procedure is normally six to eight weeks, Beard was determined to prove doctors wrong. She set her mind on diving for her team at the 2006 Big Ten Championships, a meet that was only two weeks away. Beard followed doctors’orders to rest until the day before the conference meet when they finally relented and cleared the determined diver for competition only one day before the meet.
Although Beard had not practiced for more than a month prior to the competition and had recently undergone two major heart surgeries, she chose to be a survivor and not a victim. Beard did not heed doctors’ warnings to take things slowly, deciding that tough times do not last, but tough people do.
“My original thought was to do easy dives, even cannon ball it,” Beard said. “But then I decided that if I was going to do this, I was going to do it right, which meant doing my difficult dives.”
Beard worked with Panzano to create a diving routine that was conducive to her heart condition. They placed her most difficult dives at the beginning so that when Beard tired she would have less difficult dives at the end. The strategy was successful, as Beard finished 10th in both the 1- and 3-meter springboard events, the highest she has ever placed at the Big Ten competition. Amazed by her tenacity and strength, Beard’s teammates nominated her as the most inspirational athlete on the swimming and diving team, marking the first time a diver has ever been awarded.
“She kept pushing and pushing,” Panzano said. “It’s amazing when you look back to see that she was doing what she was doing given the situation.”
Although doctors told Beard she would never compete again, she is currently diving in her final season as a Buckeye and enjoying the sport more than ever. She rarely thinks about the ordeal she went through last year unless it is to appreciate what it has given her, a new love for her sport and the opportunity to buy cute new suits.
