This coming week the excitement quotient for the Beijing Olympics will be mighty high at the Columbia home of Emad Elshafei, especially when Michael Phelps, Katie Hoff and company hit the water.

Back in 1984, at age 18, Elshafei swam for his native Egypt in the Los Angeles Olympic games, competing in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke and the 200-meter individual medley (IM).

A mere two years after splashing into the baby pool at age 6, he began competing at the national level, winning second place in the 200 IM. By 10, he was breaking one national record after another for his age group, a feat he continued almost annually until he stopped competing at age 25.

While setting another Egyptian record in Los Angeles, he didn't make the finals, achieving his best placement as 29th out of 48 swimmers.

"Egypt didn't have a full team for the Olympics, so instead of depth, they preferred to send swimmers who could compete in more than one event," he says.

This time around, it's unlikely that he'll have to choose whether to root for Egypt or the United States.

"They tend not to compete in same areas. In Egypt it's mainly weightlifting, wrestling, boxing. I don't think they're sending any swimmers this year," but, he adds, "If I see anyone from Egypt, of course I'll support them. There are so few of them!"

At the time he was competing, Elshafei was studying engineering at Ain-Shams University, in Cairo. But in 1987, after winning two silver and two bronze medals in the African Games in Kenya, he quit competitive swimming, not even trying to qualify for the '88 Olympics.

Later there was an extra inducement to participate again. During his military service, he could avoid such obligations as guard duty if he were swimming, so when approached by the nation's team he accepted.

In 1991, his last year of competition, he went out in a blaze of glory, breaking Egyptian/African records in the 200m backstroke and the 400m IM (the latter at the Mediterranean Games) and winning a gold in the 400 IM and two silvers in the 200 backstroke and 200 IM in the African Games. That 200 IM was his last race, as it had been his first at age 10.

Elshafei, now a Ph.D. whose day job is chief of the Traffic and Transportation Division of the Department of Public Works for the City of Rockville, had been admitted to the University of Maryland for graduate work, but postponed coming until 1992 to swim that final year. When he got to College Park, he connected with the United States Masters Swimming program right away.

"I was finally swimming for fun. It was totally different not having to swim for a national team, represent your country and break records," he says.

He met wife-to-be Donna Neumann at swimming practice in College Park. Columbia-raised, she had swam here for years, even trekking up to the North Baltimore Aquatic Club of Michael Phelps fame from age 14 to 16. Within six months of their meeting, Elshafei and the Atholton High School math teacher were married. No wonder they won the "fastest couple" Masters relay.

Nowadays there are four Elshafeis swimming at the Supreme Sports Club and their neighborhood pool in Clemens Crossing: Emad; Donna; Sabrina, 11, and Adam, 8.

As for following in dad and mom's, uh, strokes, "The kids say, 'You're both swimmers. We don't have a choice,' but we put no pressure on them," Elshafei says. "I know it's a really boring sport. You go back and forth in the pool for two hours. It's not a game like basketball, it's a workout. You work the whole year for one big meet where you're supposed to peak."

Yes, he's had a love/hate relationship with the sport.

"Any kid, when you find something you're good at, better than other kids, you like it. At age 8, I was the second-fastest person in the country. You always have goals: what's for next year. It just gets better and better."

But on the other hand. ...

"When in training you're putting in such hours and effort, so many sacrifices, that at some point you realize that you don't want to keep doing it."

No one forced Elshafei, neither his parents nor a scholarship agreement. He put the pressure on himself.

The year after his Olympic experience, he "wasn't very interested in swimming." It took him a year to get excited again in time to prepare for the 1986 World Championships in Spain. And then there were the Mediterranean Games, the African Games, the Arab Games.

That's one reason he admires Michael Phelps so much.

"What keeps you going when you have already won all those medals? At 23 he still has the urge to compete, do better and win.

"You know, in Egypt there's a saying: 'Getting to the top is easy; it's staying there that's hard.' "

Now that Elshafei is just having fun, he encourages the rest of us to dive in, too.

"It's an excellent sport at any age, even the 70s and 80s. It's healthy. It's low-impact. And it's clean. There's no sweat."

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