Melanie Schlanger, Jasmine Alkhaldi and Azad Al-Barazi might have a future as an Olympic trivia question. What do the gold medalist from Australia, the honorable mention Mid-Major All-American from the Philippines and the Venice (Calif.) lifeguard with Syrian parents have in common?

All are Olympians and logged infinite hours at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex as University of Hawaii swimmers.

Schlanger will be in the London swimming spotlight after capturing her first Australian National Championship in March. Her time of 53.74 in the 100-meter freestyle ranks sixth in the world this year. She also took bronze in the 200 to earn a spot on that relay team.

She was with the Rainbow Wahine in 2004 and ’05, competing in the spring of 2005 and leaving after the fall semester for the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships, where she won three bronze medals. In her short time at Manoa, Schlanger broke the school record in the 50 and 100 free, won the 100 and 400 medley relay at the Western Athletic Conference Championships and was honored as WAC Co-Freshman of the Year.

She would go on to win relay gold at the 2007 World Championships and, later that year, help break the world record in the 4×100 short course freestyle relay.

She earned a bronze at Beijing in the 4×100 free relay and helped the 4×200 team into the final by swimming the third leg in the heats. That team ultimately got the gold in world-record time.

Now, at 25, she is being called Australian swimming’s comeback kid. Health complications forced her to retire for 10 months. When she was finally well enough, and inspired enough, to return to the pool, the competitive fire roared back and her health has held up.

“I’m not into destiny, but I do believe things happen for a reason,” Schlanger told Queensland’s Courier-Mail in Australia recently. “I’m sort of quietly grateful for the hardship because it made me a stronger person and it definitely makes my success now feel even sweeter.”

Syria and the Philippines are but a blip on swimming’s radar compared to Australia. Alkhaldi and Al-Barazi have no medal aspirations, but their presence in London might say even more about the magic of the Olympics. Alkhaldi is one of 11 athletes the Philippines is bringing to the Games and Al-Barazi one of just three for troubled Syria.

Al-Barazi was born in Casablanca and raised in Woodland Hills, Calif., but holds dual citizenship because both parents are Syrian-born. He transferred to UH from Santa Monica City College, where the 6-foot-6 breaststroker was the school’s 2006 water polo MVP.

The walk-on swam two years for UH and saved his best for last, reaching three individual finals at the 2010 Conference USA Championships. His fastest time in the 100 breaststroke is 1:03.35, set in last year’s World Championships. Al-Barazi might be best known in swimming circles for his actions on dry land as a co-star in Ed Moses’ “Splash On ‘Em” music video.

Four years ago in Beijing, Hawaii’s Daniel Coakley and Christel Simms represented the Philippines in swimming. Alkhaldi, who will be a UH sophomore this fall, grew up in Los Banos in the Philippines. UH found her at Trace College, a relatively new, state-of-the-art training center where she spent her final five years of school, commuting home on weekends.

She is the fastest female swimmer in a country that has not won an Olympic swimming medal in 80 years, although it lays some claim to American star Natalie Coughlin, who has Filipino blood on her mother’s side.

Alkhaldi holds all the Rainbow Wahine’s top times in freestyle sprints and swims anchor on relay teams, but has no medal illusions in London.

“I want to have a good time,” she says, speaking of her experiences both in and out of the pool. “A best time.”

Mongolia struck gold in 2008, leaving the Philippines with the distinction of winning the most medals (nine) without claiming gold. UH coach Victor Wales knows Alkhaldi won’t change that. He is fine with it.

“I want her to have a great experience, swim her best time and learn as much as she can so four years from now, in Rio, maybe she does a relay,” he says. “Maybe she inspires three other girls from the Philippines that she can have a relay with. How close she will get to semifinals and that kind of stuff … for her, really it’s about the experience. The fact is, she has at least three more years with us, so her reality is 2016.”