Thought it would be neat to share our stories about the best athlete we ever swam with. Note that it is not necessarily the fastest or best swimmer we have trained with.
The best athlete I ever trained with was a young man that showed up for my masters swim group. He was training to pass the test to be a Navy SEAL officer. Having graduated from a non-Naval Academy college, the standards for making the officers cut were tough. He was, however, a good prospect.
With no prior competitive swim background, he was able to get his 500 yard sidestroke down to a 7:30 in a matter of a few months. However, this was not the main thing that impressed me. It was the times/scores on his practice tests which I helped time him on.
Here is what he could do:
500 yard sidestroke swim: 7:30
8 minute rest
2 minutes of push-ups: # done was 112
2 minute rest
2 minutes of sit-ups: # done was 110
2 minute rest
max number of pull-ups (palms facing away from body): 25
8 minute rest
1.5 mile run done in combat boots and long pants: 9:05.
The guy was a machine. Speed, strength, endurance, and power. Doing 25 pull-ups shortly after a hard swim, pushups, and sit-ups was impressive! The young man decided not to pursue a career in the Navy but chose to stay near family. Last I heard he had started his own business and was doing well.
I was fortunate to train with some outstanding swimmers in college. It's really hard to choose, but, for me, the "best swimming athletes" would need to be someone who was great all-around across strokes and distances. The two guys that stand out in my mind are Bill Stapleton ('88 Olympics) and Doug Gjertsen ('88 and '92 Olympics). These guys could compete in practically any event and hold their own with the elite in the country. Their versatility in collegiate dual meets was awesome.
As far as athletes who can do more than swim, the people who impress me are the Ironman triathletes who can hold their own (or beat) experienced & fast swimmers on a 2.4m swim, then proceed to crank out a 112 mile bike and marathon run. I'm always humbled after a Saturday morning swim workout, when I'm feeling pretty proud of myself for having done about 5000 yards ... only to hear the Iron-guys in the locker room talk about the 30 mile "warm-up" ride they did before the swim workout and the 70 mile "training ride" they're about to head off on ... Oh yeah, and that's a light day for them. :bow:
I remember warming up at 1991 Big Tens in Indy and Mike Barrowman was in my lane. I was trying to just do some easy free, but he was doing *** behind me and was right on my feet! I had to speed up, of course. You can't let a breaststroker pass you when you're doing free--even if it is Mike Barrowman :)
I did train with Brendan Hansen for three months in the summer of 1996. He was maybe 15 at the time and I was 19. His brother graduated high school the same year as me.
I didn't really train with her but I had the honor on being at the same club with Grace Cornelius. She was so nice and really down to earth. She was nice to everyone no matter what their social background unlike many of the other upper middle class kids that I used to train with. Plus, for a sprinter, she really trained her tush off.
On a Competition level, I guess that the best athlete that I ever swam against was Atiba Wade. All those guys from PDR were really nice people. I wished that I could have trained there. Of course, he was much faster than me. But, he did go on to swim with a some SEC School and recently swam at this year's Trials.
There are so many great people I swam with over the years. I was always impressed with this girl, Wendy, on my USS team in high-school who didn't have boatloads of natural talent but she worked as hard and had as much fun as anyone else. I was almost more impressed with her because it wasn't like she was reaping a lot of rewards in terms of awards or recognition. She just loved the sport. That is cool.
As far as truly awesome athletes, I trained with Mary T. at Cal (though I was a breaststoker so, as you can imagine, I rarely swam in the same lane). She was really fun and amazing to swim with. Never met a classier swimmer.
My first awesome athlete encounter was when I was at my first National level meet, World Championship Trials, as a sophomore in high-school in 1982. I was in Tracy Caulkins' heat in the 100 breaststroke prelims and totally star-struck.
Lunn Lestina on the Curl swim team 85-86.
I remember coming up to PV from Richmond area and getting totally shellacked by Lunn. I was a HS senior and swimming fairly fast, but he was smoking.
Did a workout with Summer Sanders when I was in college. More recently, I paddled around with Rowdy Gaines once. He was doing TV color commentary for a meet I was running.
-Rick
I swim with Laura Val right now. She's in better shape than anybody else on my team. She's an absolute bulldog in practice too. I've swum with some top ten swimmers in my time (no Olympians) but Laura is by far the most impressive.
When I was a kid I trained with a girl named Beth Scott. I don't think I ever swam in the same lane as her, and I don't think I ever talked to her. She used to walk by me like she didn't even see me. Because she mostly didn't see me. She was legally blind. She won multiple golds and set multiple WR's in the Barcelona Paralympics (B3 classification). You can look it up.
Most gifted I've ever trained with or seen; Brian Alderman (high school record holder 100 fly in mid-80's @ 48+, never went to college, top seed 100 fly 88' OT's, hold a couple of masters records)
Hardest working non-distance swimmer; Richard Schroeder (84'/88' Olympian breastroker)
Most badass "D" man would be a tie between Jeff Float & Kirk Anderson from Arden Hill's and USC/Cal respectively.
Best workout swimmer: Jon Clark UCSB in early 80's who could swim/pull close to NCAA QT's but never close in a meet
