You watched the Olympics, transfixed, as lean Longhorn swimmers sliced sweetly through the water, leaving foamy froth — and the other competitors — in their wake. Ian Crocker made his bodacious butterfly leg of the men’s 4x100 medley relay look like pure play. And Aaron Peirsol glided gracefully through his gold-medal-winning backstroke heat.
What does it take to get there, to perform at that level?

The UT swimmers know. Of the 103 medals won by the U.S. in Athens, 42 of them had Texas ties and 21 of those (including a diver) were current or recent UT students. Leading the charge were recent UT grads Peirsol and Crocker: Peirsol pocketed three precious golds while Crocker diversified his holdings by earning one medal of each color.

In fact, Paula Gibbs of the Wiscasset Newspaper in Maine reports that Crocker’s first Olympic gold win in Sydney, Australia (in 2000), prompted his grandmother’s fellow churchgoers to nickname her the “golden grandmother.”

As a proud granny, Phyllis Crocker can only beam about Ian. “He’s a great kid,” she says. “He’s worked extremely hard. He’s given up a lot as a teenager, and I think it’s payback time, in a sense. When he was fourteen years old, he would be in the pool practicing at five o’clock in the morning, two hours before school started. Then after school he would practice for two more hours.”

Phyllis continues, “He’s always been very focused, very determined, and always set goals for himself. He’s kept his resolutions and it paid off.”

Apparently what also paid off was Phyllis’ investment in a swimming pool back in 1975. At the time, she was a brand-new grandmother with a minor problem: her son, wife and their small children lived in another town. So in order to get them to visit, she bribed them with a new swimming pool — a purchase she knew would entice them to bring Phyllis’ only grandkids (Ian and his older sister Amy) over on the weekends.

And looking back now, it seems her bribe really paid off. Ian and Amy typically spent all day in the pool and as Phyllis recounts fondly, “I never had to bathe them, because they’d be parboiled by the time the day was over.”

So where did Ian get his love of water? Well, it’s probably genetic. Phyllis was never afraid of the water — “I was in every mud puddle I could find,” she says. And her father was captain of several coastal schooners and a bridge tender at the Barter’s Island Bridge in Boothbay, Maine.

Early on, Phyllis realized that her grandson had a fiercely competitive spirit. She recalls, “We always had a pack of Old Maid cards around. Ian learned to play when he was about four. He could hold his own against Amy, even though she was three years older. He wasn’t about to let his sister beat him.”

And that competitive spirit stuck. Amazingly, at the tender age of 17, Crocker won his first gold medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Then he made an excellent career move: he came to UT to swim for coach Eddie Reese. Crocker has since graduated, but during his time at UT he was a 10-time NCAA champion and 22-time NCAA All-American.

The last four years have also been good for UT — Longhorn swim teams won two national titles and Ian Crocker joined Mark Spitz and Pablo Morales as the only men ever to win the 100-meter butterfly (short-course) event four years in row at the NCAA Championships.

At that time, Crocker’s coach, Reese, was tapped to be Head Swim Coach for the U.S. Olympic team. And not surprisingly, at the conclusion of this year’s Olympic Games in Athens, Reese had some interesting things to say about that experience.

“I don’t give much value to the number of medals, to records, or even to fast times,” he says. “The important things in an Olympiad are efforts, efforts with no guarantee of success (however they are defined), the way the team takes care of itself (each other) and the appreciation of what it takes to get here. This may have been the best team dynamic I have seen and had the pleasure of learning from.”
Reese continues, “The last few days our team meetings focused on finishing the meet the right way. Everyone wanted to do well, swim fast, win medals and establish ourselves as the most dominant swimming country in the world. Beyond that, we wanted to show the class and dignity that would make the U.S. proud. It was not just about the medal count. The kids were great. It was a rewarding and educational
six weeks, including the trials. I will be glad to get home and hug my wife and our dogs.”

Besides winning three gold medals in Athens, Aaron Peirsol is also known for being the youngest person to ever break two minutes in the 200-meter backstroke. He accomplished this when he was age 15 — six years before the Athens Olympics.

In the Sydney Olympics of 2000, Peirsol finished just 0.59 seconds behind the winner, and clinched the silver medal. Since Sydney, however, second-place finishes have become increasingly rare for the high-performing Peirsol. Especially because of his lofty goals now, one of which is to remain undefeated for the rest of his career. Sound impossible? Not in a sport where age 25 is considered over-the-hill!

Olympic Inspiration
So are you inspired yet? Ready to hit the pool for a few fast laps, but not really sure how to become a better swimmer? Here are some helpful tips to keep you on track:

• Lower your expectations. Swimming is a very competitive sport, and the ratio of heart and lungs to body size — a key element of elite success — peaks in your late teens. To put it another way, if you’re old enough to read this and you’re not already in a competitive program or peak physical condition, it’s probably too late to cultivate Olympic dreams.
• Don’t give up. That being said, the Olympics are only the top .0001 percent of the iceberg! If you’re competitive-minded, there are plenty of local events to channel your swimming energies. For example, if you’re bold enough to brave open-water swimming, the Lake Travis Relay on Oct. 9 is a great option. (Be sure to visit www.adultswimming.com.) Or if you’re most comfortable in a pool, check out the Weiss and Weiss SCY Meet on Oct. 17. Novice events are available and they’re only twenty-five yards long. (For more information, e-mail kirsten@weissx2.com.) There are also scads of triathlons almost every month of the year, and many of them have relay divisions, so you can swim and then hand off the remainder of the race to friends for the bike and run legs. (Visit www.runtex.com for listings.)
• Plan before you plunge. If you’re just looking to improve your stroke, have fun and get fit, the best time to start a swim program is when it’s still warm outside. You may have a few weeks’ grace period before the first cold front, so start now. It’s much easier to face getting in the water, and particularly coming out dripping wet, when the outside temperature is above 70 degrees.
• Take baby steps. If you don’t yet know how to swim, consider taking a beginner class or getting some one-on-one instruction. And if it’s off-season, many area facilities offer swim classes and lessons at indoor pools.

Seasoned Swimmers
Okay, so what if you already know how to swim but you need some new swim workouts? Here are a few different types that each accomplish different things:

• Long, slow distance swims are what most recreational swimmers do at Barton Springs. Start swimming at an easy pace and keep it up for 20 to 40 minutes. This builds your aerobic endurance.
• Sets are best done in a pool. To do them, swim a measured distance fairly fast, like a length of the pool or a lap (down and back) and then take a short rest, all within a specific amount of time. For instance, if you can swim a brisk lap in a minute-and-a-half, you might want to do your sets every 1:45. (In other words, every 1:45, you should take off and swim another lap.) So if you swim the lap faster than a minute-and-a-half, you’ll get more than 15 seconds of rest. Of course, if you’re slower, then you’ll get less. Start with three of these and work up to 10 over time. Sets build anaerobic endurance and speed.
• Get comfortable holding your breath. Breathe in a pattern, on every fourth or fifth arm stroke. Try to sustain that for at least four breathing cycles before you have to stop and rest. Once you can do it for eight to 10 cycles, move up to breathing every six or seven strokes. Alternate work periods with about 15 seconds of rest. This type of hypoxic training develops your ability to hold your breath, and to work without oxygen for awhile.
• Mix it up with a medley of freestyle swimming and kickboard training. Be sure to hold the board out in front of you with your arms mostly straight, so that your face is in the water and you’re turning your head to the side to breath. Then try sticking a foam pool buoy between your legs so that you’re forced to use only your arms only (pulling). A good routine to start would be: 200 yards of easy freestyle, 50 yards of kicking, 50 yards of pulling, 100 yards freestyle, 50 yards kicking, 50 yards pulling, 100 yards freestyle.

Try a few of these workouts, take a class, and then start showing up at the novice swim meets or relay triathlons. You’ll be glad you got your feet wet and one day you might even feel like a real Longhorn Olympian!