Katie Hoff is collecting Olympic medals―just not in the color she expects of herself. Brendan Hansen’s only chance at an individual medal disappeared in the wake of his Japanese rival.

　　With five individual events on her Beijing schedule, Hoff was expected to be the female Michael Phelps and produce similarly golden results. The guy she calls her pseudo brother is 2-for-2 in gold medals.

　　Sure, Hoff has two medals from her first two events, but neither of them gold. She won a bronze Sunday in the 400-meter individual medley, where she went in as the world recordholder, and added a silver in the 400 freestyle Monday.

　　“If I keep climbing at this pace, I’ll be happy,” Hoff said.

　　Hansen’s Olympic year has been strangely off form and it continued at these games.

　　He finished fourth in the 100 breaststroke Monday and lost his world record by 0.22 second to Kosuke Kitajima, who defended his title from Athens.

　　Six of the eight finalists swam under 1 minute, including Hansen, who touched in 59.57 seconds. But he couldn’t make up time against the top three.

　　“You definitely had to bring your ‘A’ game to win a medal, and those three guys that beat me did,” he said. “We’re seeing world records get broken like it’s the easiest thing in the world, and it’s not. Everyone’s swimming fast, everyone’s got a smile on his face and it’s been fun so far.”

　　Hoff’s smile was a bit forced after Stephanie Rice of Australia beat her in the 400 IM with a time that was nearly 2 seconds faster than Hoff’s world record from the U.S. trials.

　　Hoff was an unnerved 15-year-old when she competed at her first Olympics in Athens, actually throwing up after her first event. She failed to win a medal in either of her two races.

　　In the 400 IM, nerves weren’t a problem. She simply couldn’t keep up with Rice.

　　“I was trying,” she said. “I didn’t have it at the end.”

　　Hoff was again denied Monday when Rebecca Adlington of Britain rallied over the final 50 meters to overtake her.

　　“I was a little disappointed I was so close,” Hoff said. “I thought I had a shot all the way to the wall.”

　　Hoff put her head back and closed her eyes after checking the scoreboard. She looked to the side and as she saw Adlington and bronze medalist Joanne Jackson celebrating, Hoff turned away and headed for the opposite side of the pool to exit.

　　Hoff’s schedule is jam-packed, with three more individual events, plus a relay remaining.

　　“It’s definitely tough, especially the last two days,” she said. “I had two races where I had to be in the top eight, where everybody was racing hard in the preliminaries. At this point, I take one race at a time. You can’t think about the next until you get there.”

　　Hansen has been putting on a brave face since he shockingly failed to qualify for the 200 breaststroke at the U.S. trials, despite being the event’s former world recordholder and bronze medalist in Athens. He finished fourth, and only the top two made the Olympic team.

　　In the 100 breaststroke prelims in Beijing, Hansen tied for 10th and failed to break a minute in a race in which he owns the five fastest times ever.

　　His coach was troubled when Hansen came out wearing a jammer―a suit that goes from the waist to the knees.

　　“I think that’s the first time he’s worn a jammer in two years,” said Eddie Reese, who also is head coach of the U.S. men’s team. “I hope to talk him into something that will cover more of his body.”

　　Hansen seemed to diagnose his own problems when he said he was trying to lay low.

　　“I don’t want to be the center of attention going into the final,” he said. “I don’t swim well when I’m the center of attention.”

　　Now, he has only a swim left in the medley relay, leaving him plenty of time to think about what went wrong.

　　“I’ve just had a really off year, on a really important year, and I just feel like that’s not the last you’re going to see of me,” he said. “I’m going to bring it back and I won’t be done until I at least have a legitimate shot at those world records again.”