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Charlotte swimmer Melvin Stewart has always been a little different.
He has always gone faster than other racers. Experimented with odd swimming techniques. Cultivated a more radical, attention-hungry image. ``I'm so secure with who I am, it doesn't matter what others think of me,'' Stewart said Friday. ``Fear immobilizes people, but I'm not fearful. Life isn't a dress rehearsal, so I just do what I feel like.
``People will love the picture that goes with this story. Or else they will hate it. And you know what? Either way, that's great. I just don't want them to be indifferent.''
Wearing a Speedo as his business suit, Stewart, 26, has become a king in a chlorinated world of toned bodies and slippery tile. He hasn't lost his favorite race - the 200-meter butterfly - for seven years. He will be a heavy favorite to keep that streak going in the 200 fly today, during Day 3 of the Charlotte UltraSwim meet at the Mecklenburg Aquatic Center.
``People keep waiting for me to lose,'' Stewart said. ``They want me to lose, it seems like. If I win the 200 again, it's, Who cares. Big deal. B-o-o-ring.' ``
That is one of the few times Stewart wants to be boring. He would love a humdrum repeat of his 1992 success at the '96 Olympics in Atlanta.
Stewart, who was born in Gastonia and grew up in Fort Mill and Charlotte, won two gold medals at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona - one in the 200-meter, one in a relay.
Since then, he has made a couple of swimming posters and appeared on TV's ``Baywatch.'' He has completed the course work for a degree in public administration and political science at Tennessee and will graduate in August. He has hired two full-time assistants ``to keep my life as stress-free as possible.''
He has decided on a list of the three people he most admires - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ted Turner and Charles Barkley. ``Unabashed, unadulterated, great salesman,'' he called them.
He has eaten the same meal a hundred times at a Knoxville cafeteria - three helpings of greens, one serving of mashed potatoes, Salisbury steak and gravy slung over the whole thing.
And he has planned for a future out of the pool.
Stewart will retire from swimming after the '96 Olympics. He hopes that by then his neck will droop with more gold and his answering machine will blink with endorsement and acting offers. He plans to open a movie production company and has already picked out a name - BlueRydge Productions.
But none of that is a sure thing. For the first time since 1988, Stewart's reign over the 200-meter butterfly race is being seriously challenged. The king may be overthrown.
Denis Pankratov, from Moscow, broke Stewart's 4-1/2-year-old world record in the 200 fly Wednesday. He blistered to a time of one minute 55.22 seconds at an outdoor pool in France.
Stewart wasn't there, but he has spent much of the last three days talking about what Pankratov did in another continent. Stewart was curious enough about Pankratov's record that he called around until he found Pankratov's split times - or what he swam during each 50-meter segment of the 200-meter race.
Stewart has been a graceful loser of his record for the most part, saying things like ``This will make things more interesting'' and ``I love a challenge.''
But he also said Friday over lunch: ``I think Pankratov was foolish for doing that now. By that I mean you shouldn't be having an optimal performance in June 1995, 13 months before the Olympics. That's a strange time to peak.''
The two last saw each other in the Goodwill Games in 1994, when Stewart beat Pankratov. They won't meet again until 1996 in Atlanta.
The two rivals have spoken a total of seven words to each other.
``I shook his hand just before we started racing each other at the Goodwill Games in 1994,'' Stewart said. ``Instead of letting go of the handshake at the normal time, I pulled him toward me and clapped him on the arm.
``I wanted to feel his arm, to see if he had shaved his body hair. When I did that, he looked at me sort of weird-like.''
Stewart then said to Pankratov: ``What's up? How are you doing?''
``Tired,'' Pankratov said, pulling away.
Stewart explains now: ``I was trying to figure out if he had shaved to see how ready he was. When you shave, you're trying for an optimal swim. I was sick that day, and I really thought he would beat me.''
Instead, Stewart beat Pankratov. They haven't seen each other or spoken since. ``But now that he's got the record, I'm sure he thinks he has an edge over me,'' Stewart said. ``He doesn't.''
Pankratov does have the edge in the 100-meter butterfly, however. Stewart has always been faster in the second half of the 200, so he is very vulnerable in the 100-meter race. He finished second at the UltraSwim Friday night in the 100 fly, losing by .44 of a second to Mark Henderson.
But Stewart hopes that his new technique will eventually propel him past swimmers like Henderson and to a gold in the 100-meter butterfly in Atlanta. He is experimenting with swimming the opening 35 meters of a race and a total of 50 underwater. He also is swimming 8 feet down.
``The idea is that there is less turbulence down at the bottom of the pool then on the top,'' Stewart said. ``I make myself sleek and go out like a bullet on my dive. I don't stay down forever, though. I don't want to come back in a coffin.''
No one else regularly does that long of an underwater swim in the 100. It feels, Stewart said, ``as close as you can to the way a dolphin must feel.''
That is Stewart. Trying to feel like a dolphin. Looking for an edge. Walking down Tryon Street in a Speedo and acting so confident it seems like he belongs.
``My whole life has really been about one thing,'' Stewart said. ``I almost can't remember a time when I haven't been getting into or out of a pool. That's going to end before long. But I'm still doing it. So why not have fun?''
