Whether or not the Summer Olympics increased interest in local athletics isn’t really a question for Mike Ashmore, head coach of the Santa Maria Swim Club.
“The phone has been going nuts!” he said. “Ability isn’t going to be affected by the Olympics, but there is definitely an increase in interest.”
With highly publicized swimmers making splashes and setting world records on TV, it’s easy to imagine young people across the world springing from their couches and into lap lanes. But in Santa Maria, the suddenly motivated portion of the population seems to cover a wide range of the age spectrum.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, so I expect it with kids, but we’ve seen a huge increase in adults who are interested,” Ashmore said. “Michael Phelps has certainly encouraged swimmers of all ages.”
The multi-gold-winning, record-blasting Phelps isn’t the only swimmer who proved to be inspiring this summer. The 41-year-old mother and Olympic medalist Dana Torres might be responsible for urging people who previously thought they were past their prime to do a flutter kick in the deep end.
The Santa Maria Swim Club embraces swimmers of all ages, offering programs like Splashclub, which meets once a week and at a time convenient for the swimmer. Recreation and competition both have time slots in the water. But how does an extremely competitive swimmer make it from the community pool to the Olympics?
You have to spend time in the pool with a program that can get you there.
“The earlier you start, the better,” Ashmore said. “Our sport goes into the spotlight once every four years. If you’re a baseball player, you get to see the World Series once every year. For kids to be able to dream and think, ‘That could be me,’ is important.
“We carry about 200 kids,” he continued. “There’s probably quite a few who have talent to get there, but are not willing to put in the effort. It’s not about the most talented swimmer. It’s the ones who have the tenacity to stick with it. That’s the bottom line. You have to be willing to put in time and work.”
Even though registration for the new season doesn’t begin until mid-September for most swim clubs, USA Swimming is expecting record growth. Across the country, there have been reports similar to those in Santa Maria.
USA Swimming’s highest post-Olympic bump followed the Barcelona games. There was a 10 percent nation-wide increase in membership after 1993.
The Santa Maria Swim Club has been seeing steady increases in enrollment ever since 2004, presumably after the 2004 Summer Olympics, when Phelps grabbed six gold medals. Ashmore said that team members are already looking forward to the 2012 Olympics in London after sending teammate Rachael Wahl to the Olympic Trials this past summer.
“Our major goal is to be the best and most comprehensive team on the Central Coast,” Ashmore said. “We’re about helping these kids grow into healthy young adults.”
Swimming isn’t the only sport on the rise with help from the Summer Olympics. Local gymnastics centers have been feeling the lift as well. Katey Eckenrode, owner of KT’s All-Star Gymnastic Center, doesn’t hesitate to talk about the jump.
“We’ve seen a huge increase in interest with all ages, but especially in the little ones, the 5- and 6-year-olds,” Eckenrode said. “It’s given our gymnasts a kick in the pants. They’ve become a little more serious.”
There’s no shortage of enthusiasm at KT’s All-Star Gymnastic Center, where young gymnasts and older, more experienced ones share the same floor. Being involved in both the beginners’ practice and the more experienced gymnasts’ practice is something valuable to Eckenrode,
“We have two different programs: competitive and recreational. Competitive is a little more intense. It involves a lot of conditioning up,” she explained.
Nurturing a little gymnast’s dream of going for the gold isn’t hard, considering that about half of the athletes at the center have Olympic aspirations. Eckenrode said, however—echoing Ashmore’s sentiments—that not all of them make it that far. To do so takes hard work and endurance.
Perhaps learning to love a new sport is just as important as learning to become competitive in that sport.
“We want to impart a love of gymnastics to the kids and to get them physically fit,” Eckenrode said. “We want you to be moving and learning.”
Intern Kathryn Leedom gets a gold medal for interning. Contact her through the editor at rmiller@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 4-11, 2008.