Staciana Stitts cries out with joy as she realizes she's headed for Sydney. (AP)

"I could have easily finished third and I wouldn't have gotten all this attention," 18-year-old Staciana Stitts said after the race.

That would have been a shame, because she didn't shave her head. Stitts has a condition called alopecia, which is believed to be an immune deficiency that prevents her from growing hair. Because she made the Olympics by finishing 1/100th of a second ahead of the third-place swimmer, everyone got to know a person who seemed impossibly self-assured, given her age, gender and cosmetic travails.

Stitts finished behind American record holder Megan Quann, a 16-year-old who displayed her modesty in the postrace news conference by saying of her main rival in Sydney, "I think she's going down."

Stitts talked about what happened to her hair.

She talked about being a woman with less hair than Dick Vitale, describing what it was like when it began falling out at age 12.

"I was a brunette," Stitts said. "Straight brown."

There is no current hope that she will be able to grow hair in the future. Of course, losing hair happens to lots of people, including children, who, unlike Stitts, have tragic medical problems associated with the condition. Hers is nothing but a cosmetic situation. But tell that to a 12-year-old girl.

Tell that to someone who is about to become one of those Olympic stories on national television.

"It was Christmas of seventh grade when it fell out, and I was devastated," Stitts said. "At first, I thought I was really sick and I was really frightened by it. I told my parents, 'Help me. What's going on? I'm a girl and I'm losing my hair!'

"I spent a year wearing hats and scarves and hiding from it. My teammates knew I didn't have hair, but no one at school knew. I was pretty much in denial. I wasn't thinking that I just needed to be myself. I felt like I was always hiding from everyone. I always wondered who was staring at me."

Her hair grew back briefly before eighth grade, but it fell out again. Eventually, she had to face reality. That meant going to school without the hats and scarves.

"I decided it was no choice to wear a wig," Stitts said. "I would have just stuck it under a (swimming) cap. That would have been too weird. I decided to just go as myself. I think I have an edge over (other swimmers) because I don't have hair. I suggest anybody do it if they have the guts. Or the stupidity."

Stitts is from Carlsbad, Calif. Her parents call her Stace, using her full name only if they're mad. Her father wanted to name her Anastasia. Her mom suggested shuffling the sounds a little. Hence, Staciana. At age 6, she began swimming competitively.

Stitts, whose older sister swims for the University of Iowa, is going into her sophomore year at the University of California. As a freshman, she finished second in the NCAA 100-meter breaststroke and third in the 200-meter breaststroke.

"Berkeley is a little unique," Stitts said, explaining her college choice. "I didn't feel odd there."

Her performance Friday night was not a surprise. But if she was going to fail, it was not going to be because of nerves. Stitts listens to rap and dances before races. She jokes around. She described a recent shaving cream fight with some other swimmers.

She is on her way to Sydney, where people can stare all they want.

"I've learned to block out all the stares," Stitts said. "Now I'm so comfortable with it, people just assume I shave my head. It really helped me to grow, to go to school without hair and have people see me as I truly am."

"You know," she added quickly, with a touch of self-deprecation, "being bald and seeing my personality shine through."