When it comes to whitewater slalom, canoeist David Hearn was the first to prove that wisdom on the water counts more than age.

Hearn was the first of many 30-something veterans to earn one of the eight berths on the Olympic team at trials held in mid-May on the Ocoee River in eastern Tennessee.

"It was nice to win at age 37," Hearn said. "And I'll keep doing this as long as I have as much fun as I'm having now."

Saturday's victory seemed to surprise him, considering the tight competition, particularly from his longtime rival and teammate Jon Lugbill, who was winning after his first run down the demanding Ocoee course.

In the two decades Hearn has been racing, he's often been second and in the shadow of Lugbill, who has five world titles to his credit and is arguably the best whitewater athlete ever. In this sport he's considered a legend, one whose mug once graced millions of boxes of Wheaties, the breakfast of champions. Lugbill retired after the '92 Olympics--where he was a disappointing fourth--but couldn't resist a comeback two years ago.

But Saturday's show belonged to Hearn, who beat Lugbill by almost two seconds for the first of two Olympic positions.

Lugbill, however, knew that he would have another shot at it on Sunday, unlike the tandem canoeists vying for just one position on the Olympic squad.

The favored tandem team, brothers Fritz and Lecky Haller, trailed the duo of Wayne Dickert and Horace Holden after the first of two runs. It all came down to the second run, and the Hallers, paddling well below their world-class ability, were a bit faster than Dickert and Holden. But they'd hit two gates, and the resulting 10-second penalty left them in second place, and off the Olympic team.

The entire arena was in shock as the Hallers failed to close the deal that they themselves had written. Just one month earlier--at the World Cup held on this course--they had earned the United States its sole tandem canoe entry at the Games.

It was the first evidence of the weekend that the tough team trials selection--where winners take all--had exhibited its brutal nature, leaving those considered Olympic medal contenders, like the Hallers, in the dust.

"We were off and they made us pay," said a deflated Fritz Haller, who like Lugbill, had shed 30 or so pounds and aimed for the Games.

Meanwhile, Dickert and Holden, no spring chickens at 37 and 33, respectively, glowed in the Southern-boys-do-well limelight.

"Our coach said, 'You don't have to do anything spectacular, but you have to do everything well,'" said Dickert, the sternman, who came out of retirement last fall to team up with Holden again because the Olympics were on the Ocoee. They had been partners for three years leading up to the '92 Games, where they served as alternates.

Dickert, who grew up in the Ocoee region, told a long-winded tale of the time he body-floated down the river in nothing but his T-shirt and shorts, his first time on the Ocoee. "Me and my best friend from church..." the story began.

He paused for effect before delivering the punch line: "We thought we wuz gonna die."

Plenty of competitors felt that way this weekend, as they tested the already legendary waters of the new Olympic course for the first time. Its rapids pack a punch: Slam Dunk, The Troll, and within a couple of gasps of the finish line, Humongous.

There, the water is constricted, forming first an innocuous but large wave, followed by several frothy humps of water that blindly deposit the paddlers into the teeth of a channel-wide recirculating hydraulic.

This was the scene of a lot of carnage: racers got stuck in its grip, often exhausted. Some finessed their way out, but others got pounded--upside down, and unable to roll. Their release came only when they swam from their boats and were unceremoniously fished out and deposited them limp and waterlogged on shore, along with broken boats, paddles, and helmets torn off by the force of the water.

Even contenders for the Olympic team--who have had lots of time to master this stretch of water since it opened last fall--could lose time in Humongous. Among the men's kayaks, that's one place where reigning World Cup champion Scott Shipley faltered, costing him a second or two, as well as Saturday's race for the first of two Olympic spots.

It was veteran Rich Weiss, 32, who took that race--even with a touch of a pole--over the much more youthful Eric Giddens, in second, and Shipley, who was third at the end of the day.

Shipley's lackluster performance on Saturday left plenty of people worried. Could the pressure cause him to blow it on Sunday?

But Shipley found his best form and posted a blistering first-run score of 150.68 seconds. No one could touch that time, which was nearly five seconds ahead of the next finishers, Eric Jackson and Weiss.

Shipley, who'd been down at the mouth after Saturday's race, rediscovered his trademark grin. Out of breath and dripping wet, he autographed a young fan's T-shirt, saying aloud as he wrote it, "Scott Shipley, USA" and emphatically drawing the five Olympic rings below.

Shipley, at 25, is one of two on the Olympic team who is under the ripe old age of 30.

Joining him will be 23-year-old canoeist Adam Clawson, who in a bit of a surprise, upset the rest of the field of canoeists--including Lugbill--on Sunday to win a shot at his second Olympic Games. The competition, he said, was "pretty overwhelming. I focused on the course and got my act together."

Clawson won on his last run of the trials, winning the race in 167.89 seconds. Hearn was second at 169.77 seconds.

Cathy Hearn, David Hearn's older sister, also had gripping final run on Sunday.

Coming into the huge waves in Humongous, she got off-line and started to spin sideways--certainly not an ideal position above the teeth of the hole below.

With the quick instinct that comes only from experience, she spun herself completely around and dropped into the hole backwards, popping through it cleanly and quickly, much to the amazement and envy of those that had been thoroughly trashed there.

"The more difficult the water the more important it is to have experience under your belt," said Hearn, who will be 38 at the Games and leads the squad in age and experience. She made her first national team in 1977 (and hasn't missed making the cut since) and earned her first of nearly 20 international medals that year, too.

"We have all heard about this age thing," she said. "For me it just adds fire."

On Sunday, Hearn had fire enough to beat everyone but 32-year-old Dana Chladek. Chladek, the 1992 bronze medalist, earned her return trip to the Games on Saturday, and won both day's races easily.

Yet one paddler faced the dubious distinction of enduring yet another trial, in a courtroom, not on a river.

David Hearn was just out for another day of fun--a ride on the ultimate surf wave--on the Potomac River during January's record flood.

That didn't sit well with the authorities--who in well-documented accounts of the incident--wrestled Hearn off the river, handcuffed him, and arrested him.

On Tuesday, Hearn went to federal court on charges of failing to obey a lawful order to get off the river and resisting arrest. The case was dismissed; the prosecution, with its seven witnesses and 21 exhibits, could not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, and the judge determined that Hearn was in fact on the river lawfully.

For Hearn, both whitewater trials are over. He's off to the Olympics, not to the slammer. Who could be having more fun?

Boo Turner, a Seattle writer and former U.S. National Team member in whitewater, did not distinguish herself at the Trials, but also did not get eaten in Humongous.

U.S Olympic Slalom Team

Men's Single Canoe (C-1)
David Hearn, 37, Bethesda, Maryland
Adam Clawson, 23, Bryson City, North Carolina

Men's Double Canoe (C-2)
Wayne Dickert, 37, and Horace Holden, 32, both of Bryson City, North Carolina

Women's Kayak (K-1)
Dana Chladek, 32, Kensington, Maryland and Cathy Hearn, 37, Garrett Park, Maryland

Men's Kayak (K-1)
Rich Weiss, 32, Atlanta, Georgia
Scott Shipley, 25, Poulsbo, Washington
Eric Giddens, 23, Atlanta, Goergia