Sports

Swimmers bust out to work toward Athens

Swimmers from all countries working together to prepare

updated 12:08 a.m. ET Jan. 31, 2004

PLANTATION KEY, Fla. - The scene resembles what awaits them this summer in Athens.

Some of the best American, Australian and European swimmers dive into the water, splashing furiously toward the finish line 50 meters away. Longtime rivals side by side, separated by mere inches in some cases.

But here no national anthems blare for winners. There’s no medal stand or crowd. It’s not the Olympic final.

This is simply another workout for The Race Club, an international conglomerate of elite swimmers living and training together in the Florida Keys, separated by their nationalities and united by their shared goals of Olympic glory.

“The way to get faster is to race against great competition more often,” said Jon Olsen, a four-time Olympic gold medalist for the United States and the new club’s coach. “And here, we have that every day.”

The club was the brainchild of eight-time Olympic medalist Gary Hall Jr. of the United States. He invited several of the world’s top swimmers to work alongside him in preparation for the Olympics — although some could easily be among his competitors for medals in Athens come August.

With the club, Hall’s goal is to bring his sport added visibility and find enough new revenue to ensure future generations of swimmers won’t have to work graveyard-shift jobs to scrounge up training money.

“I’m extremely appreciative of what I’ve taken away from the sport of swimming,” the 29-year-old Hall said. “Now I’m older and realize what a great sport it is. I don’t think it has the following it deserves. I see tremendous potential for this to grow as a sport and a business. That’s what I’m interested in doing.”

A typical day for the team begins around 9 a.m., with two hours of workouts in an Olympic-sized outdoor pool at the Islamorada Founders Park.

Breezes blow in off the tranquil blue waters of the Florida Keys, no more than a couple hundred yards to the east of the training pool. It’s a setting where most people would grab a chair near the water and sip cocktails, basking in the sunshine.

Olympic hopefuls don’t have that luxury, but they’re not complaining.

“Not many people can say they get up in the morning and swim in the sunshine, go home to play some backgammon, then come back and train in the sun again in the afternoon,” said four-time Olympian Mark Foster of Great Britain. “It’s like paradise.”

Most of the swimmers training with the Race Club are, like Hall, among the top sprinters in the world. Besides Foster, Olympic veterans Stavros Michaelides of Cyprus and South Africa’s Roland Schoeman have signed on with the club, founded only three months ago. Open invitations have been extended to most of the world’s best swimmers.

Activities such as boxing and weightlifting follow the morning swim, and there often is an afternoon pool workout. In all, the team trains about six hours a day, six days a week.

It’s far different than the typical routine of elite swimmers, many of whom worked individually and had to share pool time with youth teams and others half their age — hardly a forum that produces the competition needed for the world’s best to sharpen their skills.

“This would have made a huge difference back when I was training,” Olsen said. “The level of competitiveness we see in competition, we have that now all the time in a practice setting. You can’t put a value on that.”

Besides Olympic prepping, the club aims to help support up-and-coming swimmers, many of whom have had to crash on a friend’s couch for a year at a time because dollars were so tight.

Among those beneficiaries are Sabir Muhammad, an All-American at Stanford and someone probably best known for a brief stint on “Baywatch.” He seems to have a strong shot of making the U.S. Olympic team.

“One year ago, I was working as a security guard,” said Muhammad, who has part of his rent and food costs covered by the Race Club. “And today, I am a member of a team that will produce medals and world records at the Olympic Games.”

The Race Club’s primary funding source is the Phoenix Swim and Sport Foundation, which was founded by Hall’s grandfather and sponsored his training for the 2000 Sydney Games — where he won two gold medals, a silver and a bronze.

The foundation’s money won’t last forever. Hence, Hall and his circle of champions are trying to develop other sponsorship sources. They’re also lining up more high-visibility meets to attract attention in non-Olympic years and promote the sport at grass-roots levels.

“I would say I’m a promoter of the sport,” Hall said. “That’s what the Race Club needs to do. There are different people recognized for their outstanding abilities and accomplishments in various countries. What we need to do is unite all the segregated efforts into one worldwide effort to promote the sport of swimming.”