By David
Two Air New Zealand 747s are about to bring some interesting cargo to West Auckland. West Auckland Aquatics will benefit by having them here.
Jane is the first to arrive. She comes in from London in three weeks’ time. Coach Kimberly will take training while I wait anxiously at Auckland’s International Airport. The last time I saw Jane was a year ago at Miami Airport. She was on her way back to London after a Christmas visit to Florida. The last time she was in New Zealand was three years ago when she visited Auckland with the CEO of the Seattle search engine optimization company, SEOmoz. And the last time she swam in Auckland was at the 2002 New Zealand Open Championships. She comfortably won the 100 and 200 meters breaststroke championship titles. The wins earned her selection for the New Zealand team to compete in the 2002 Pan Pacific Games in Yokohama, Japan.
Readers will probably recognize Jane as the editor and occasional contributor to the Swimwatch blog. Her last post, “Kickboard Packed” told of story of the effort that had gone into securing a swimming scholarship to study in the United States. I was touched by an email Swimwatch received from a parent in the United Kingdom in response to Jane’s story. In part the email said:
“I well remember one of the most painful days of my life was when I placed my soon to be 18 year old daughter on a plane to the United States travelling a similar journey to Jane’s. I did so (as have so many parents) in the full knowledge that our lives would never be the same again, but that this was necessary for her to provide greater opportunity than she could realize in her home town. In the intervening years the pain has been numbed but still continues and is only off set by the knowledge that for her this was the right thing as there was a limited and restricted future where she was. Like Jane, she was a talented young athlete whose swimming provided a ticket to a new life.”
In 133 words this parent captured perfectly the feeling I had watching Jane catch her flight to Yokohama. As soon as the Pan Pacific swimming was done, Jane was booked on a flight from Tokyo to Seattle to begin four years of University athletics and academic study. The correspondent is right “this was necessary for her to provide greater opportunity than she could realize in her home town; for her this was the right thing as there was a limited and restricted future where she was.”
During Jane’s visit I hope we get the opportunity to spread this British correspondent’s message to the swimmers at West Auckland Aquatics. Swimming can be so much more than training and effort, championships and titles. It can be a passport to an international career; a transformed future. Were all those ten kilometer sessions, or sets of 100x100s, worth it? Were the back-breaking training camps during college–45 degrees Fahrenheit in San Diego on the second of January as you swam endless training sessions outside–worth it? As you holiday in the south of France, or look down on New York City from the Empire State building or jog over Tower Bridge, you can bet that yes, they were.
My second visit to Auckland Airport’s international arrival terminal will be in early January 2011, to collect Rhi. Her father emailed me recently and jokingly asked, “Is New Zealand ready for the arrival of Rhi?” I’m not sure about New Zealand but I can’t wait for this larger than life American to come striding through customs. Rhi is a USA national freestyle champion, a World Long Course Championship gold medalist and she won a gold medal in the 4×200 freestyle relay at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. She swam with me for twelve months or so when I was the coach at her old club in Florida. And there is a lot of swimming left in this talented athlete.
At one US National Championships I had a meeting with the US National Coach, Mark Schubert, to discuss Rhi’s swimming. He was her coach at the University of Southern California. It’s a bit off the subject, but I’d love to know why Schubert has been fired from US Swimming. If it’s a personality fallout between Schubert and US Swimming’s Executive Director, Chuck Wielgus, I know whose side I’m on. Wielgus is an idiot. Isn’t he the one who said that US swimmers never did drugs about a week before Phelps was photographed sucking on a bong? Schubert has forgotten more about swimming that Wielgus has ever known.
Schubert knew Rhi well after their time together at USC. He had also coached many of the world’s best swimmers; Evans, Krayzelburg, Babashoff, Goodell, Benko, Cohen and Sterkell. During the meeting Schubert said, “Without question, Rhi is the most talented swimmer I’ve ever coached.” After coaching her for a year I have some understanding of his opinion. She is a huge talent and can finish a race better than any swimmer in the world. On a good day her last 50 meters is a wonder to behold.
Like all America’s best swimmers Rhi has been through the American swimming mill. It’s a tough place to learn the swimming trade. High school state championships and national records, NCAA nationals, cut throat US Olympic trials, American Nationals and Grand Prix events, Rhi has done them all and has won in them all.
She is the big picture. She has been there. She has done that. She will be good for the swimmers at West Auckland Aquatics. There is more to swimming than local age group events or Swimming New Zealand’s Age Group Championships. Real people can win Olympic swimming gold medals. And there is no better example of that than the American about to arrive in Auckland. Too right we’re ready.
I’m looking forward to the next few months. Two fine athletes, two great people, are certain to make their time here a lot of fun.
