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.
Philipp, I'm right there with you on the definition of athlete. Sure, a lot of the aforementioned names are great swimmers (and for the record, Katie Hoff and I shared water once), but I'd challenge everyone to think of someone who can do something well other than swim. Philipp is right on the money.
I can't think of anyone I'd like to praise at the moment.
Philip, what you wrote was so sweet about your sweetie.
Let me add my sister here, Jennifer Engelstad. She just completed her umpteenth Ironman in Lake Placid. She does at least one Ironman a year with a few halfs and short ones every year as well. She has represented the US at World Triathlon Championships twice, coming in 6th in her age group both times (2nd female overall out of the water last time!). She is truly a dynamo! She trains for these long, grueling races while also being a VP of a company and working long hours. She is amazing in my book and I'm honored to be her sister. I only wish we didn't live 800 miles away so we could train together.
I also swam in the same pool as Inge de Bruijn as she was getting ready for the 2004 Olympics. She was amazing to watch. I used to go underwater just to watch her stroke. And yes, she had the fingernails then, too.
I have had the extreme pleasure of swimming with some amazing swimmers, both as an age grouper at Nashville Aquatic Club and in college at Texas. But none had the effect on me that Tracy Caulkins had. She was perfect in all strokes and distances, her positive attitude was incredible, just being in the pool with her made me a better swimmer. I'll never forget when we were in high school, and we did a set of descending 400 IMs in workout...I think it was 5 or 6. On the last one, she went a 4:15.80 (or something close), which just beat the American Record at that time. Pretty incredible to break an American Record in a workout in mid-season. When I could finally beat her in practice, I thought I was really something!!
Alomost 40 years ago I taught a swimming instructors class for PE majors. At the end of each class session it was not uncommon for some of the students to do take a few tries off the diving boards. But one guy, Arnie, avoided that since he literally couldn't swim 5 feet to save his life . One day, he decides to have a little fun and announces he's going off the one meter board, but not to worry because he's going to jump all the way to the shallow end! This would take a stupendous leap since from the end of the board to safety was well over 30'! I didn't want to discourage him but felt it prudent to wake up the lifeguard. Well Arnie let fly and it was amazing to watch --- he made it with room to spare, accompanied by the thunderous cheers of all who witnessed.
Arnie Robinson never did get very good at swimming, but went on to win two Olympic medals in the long jump, Bronze in '72 and Gold in '76.
Dara.
And I beat her, too, when she wasn't looking, on the 11th x 100 LCM warm up out of a set of 12.
She'd been so far ahead of me on the first 10, I think she'd stopped worrying about me making my move. She probably figured if I was going to make a move at all, it would come on the last of the 12.,
Ah, that's where they always make their mistake!
Beware the penultimate rep. That's always where people like me make our move.
On the first length, she moved ahead with effortless grace, flipped at the wall, and passed me going the other way . A couple seconds later, I did my flip and bided my time, letting her get real comfortable-like with the separation between us.
I started picking it up with 20 meters to go, tried to time things so I'd be at an all-out sprint before she even knew I was racing.
Dara was breathing on the other side when I caught up with only 8 feet to go. She still could have beaten me easily, but she lifted her head to start talking to somebody in the adjacent lane, and was letting herself just glide in. Underwater, I watched in triumph as my fingertips out-touched her by a few inches.
She never knew I beat her, and probably still doesn't, and if she were to read this, I suspect she would believe I am making it all up. But I am not! Triumph was mine that day--and probably by a slightly larger margin than her Olympic loss, too.
I should probably mention she'd had knee surgery a couple days before, and the arthroscope holes were wrapped in tight cellophane to keep anything from leaking into the water.
Most people would not consider this much of a victory. But I do. To my developing life list of accomplishments--I was an extra zombie in George Romaro's classic Dawn of the Dead--I can now add a second item.
I beat Dara Torres in swimming. In a head-to-head race, where one of us actually knew it WAS a race, I came in first--not because I am a better swimmer or have more testosterone, though I would hope one of these things is true, but because of my superior race strategy.
Not many people can say they beat Dara Torres. I am one of them.
PS is it possible that the B70 corporation would finally consider sponsoring me? Or maybe Mr. Romaro could write a redux role for me in his next film about ghouls? In nearly 35 years since my last silver screen appearance, I have actually nearly become a zombie--and grow closer to this goal with each passing day.
There are two that stand out in my mind, Robert Hauck and Jason Lezak.
In college (St. Olaf) Bobby became one of the assistant coaches after he came back from Olympic Trials in 1988. He just missed the cut but brought back a lot of knowledge. Of course, he was insanely fast in college but was bananas after Trials. Case in point, we have an alumni meet every year at the start of the season, usually in mid-October. Bobby was not swimming too much but decides to enter the 200 back. He jumps in and sets a pool record. If memory serves it was a 1:52... He was one of my coaches the rest of my time in college, great guy all the way around.
Just last week, I had a chance to swim with Jason Lezak when we did a series of swim clinics in AZ. WOW. First of all, the guy is totally cool, he is a great ambassador for swimming and our country. Really down to Earth and friendly, it was a pleasure driving him around. Plus, his knowledge of swimming is vast. He conducted some great clinics and was wonderful with the swimmers. Watching him swim and do drills was something to behold, I am still amazed at his breakouts. Folks, the power he generates and the fluidity of his underwater work is simply stunning, I don't have the words to adequately describe it.
Those are the two that stand out in my mind the most. In both cases it was a pleasure to swim with them and learn. Two great swimmers and wonderful people, a great combination indeed.
Mel, just went to your site and looked at the article you did on performance suits and masters swimming times. Interesting piece. Have you modified your thinking much since the LSR and B70 have been released?
There were two:
Once I trained in the same lane (not just the same pool) with Kosuke Kitijima, as a result of knowing his coach pretty well. My game was to see if I could get in his way but I lost big time.
The other was Rex Chapman, a former age-group swimmer and not-half-bad basketball player in his spare time.
Mel, just went to your site and looked at the article you did on performance suits and masters swimming times. Interesting piece. Have you modified your thinking much since the LSR and B70 have been released?
Not really in any systematic way, Jim. At the time I wrote that piece, I had access to suits from Speedo at no cost, so doing the tests was easy with the master's group that I coached. I no longer have the good contact and haven't thought about repeating the experiment with the new suits. So, I don't have any new data but I'm a real sucker for anecdotal information from my swimmer friends. If I go to LC Nats next summer I'll probably buy a B70 for that.
