Part 2: How We Do It

Summary

 

Tate Blahnik before they banned full body suits

The second section of the book follows the men from June to August 1999. Jochums has recruited 40 men to come train with him at Santa Clara, so Grote and Wilkens are no longer the only focus of the book. Mullen introduces Tate Blahnik, a very talented backstroker and former Stanford swimmer; Dara Torres, a retired ex-Olympian trying to make a comeback; Dod Wales, a butterflyer trying to follow in his father's footsteps and make the Olympic team; and Clayton Jones, a mid-distance freestyle specialist.

Summer is an important time in the life of the swimmer, especially the year before the Olympics. Santa Clara hosts the annual Santa Clara International swim meet, which regularly pulls some of the fastest swimmers in the world. Then, four weeks later, the swimmers taper for US Nationals. Overall, their performance at Nationals is disappointing, especially for Grote, who fails to make finals in the 100 breast. Finally they compete against Australia in a major dual meet, and are able to squeak out a win, turning the tide and giving the men more hope that the could realize their dream of Olympic glory.




Dara Torres with all her Olympic Medals

Dod Wales

Review

In this section Mullen really focuses on the specifics of swimming and the meets that these men attend in the summer. After reading this section, I definitely think this book would be more interesting to people who already understand swimming. He does spend time explaining certain aspects of swimming that non-swimmers might not understand, like taper, and the
meet schedule of national level swimmers, but it would be easy to be confused without any background knowledge. I also think the in-depth description of particular workouts and all the times of the swimmers' races would be boring for someone who doesn't appreciate what they mean. That said, I love swimming and am fascinated by these details. I actually never thought of taper as so specific. Mullen says some swimmers claim that they can feel the exact hour that their taper hits! I have never felt my taper that specifically.

Focus: Author's Point of View and Purpose

Right at the beginning of the book, Mullen tells the reader that he was interested in following one team, and their common dream of qualifying for the Olympic Games. He purposely didn't pick the sport's biggest stars, but rather focused on an entire group of men (and a few women) who trained together. He says that he became friends with these people and spent countless hours conducting hundreds of interviews to write the most complete and thorough story possible.
Mullen tells this story from a 3rd person perspective. It is as if he is there alongside the swimmers and coaches all the time (which he was), but he is not directly involved in the action. His goal is to present these men accurately and to show the incredible passion they had for their sport and their dream. I think he also wanted to show how swimming can be an art: "But if a rolling videotaped slowed to a frame-by-frame progression, it would zoom onto the swimmer's face and crop out the outside world. The camera would watch Wlkens' arm strokes crashing over-loud in an otherwise silent universe. Perfect water caplets would spring slow-mo through the air" (122). He truly captures the beautiful moments of swimming, and describes them in detailed, beautiful prose. Below is a video that includes some slow-motion video of Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, who was one of the main competitors of the US athletes in 1999 and 2000.

Part 1: Never Panic

Summary

Gold in the Water starts out by introducing Tom Wilkens and Kurt Grote, two national level swimmers training to make the 2000 Olympic Team. Tom Wilkens is the "rookie," just starting to make a name for himself in the sport. Kurt Grote is an older and much more refined swimmer, described by Mullen as a modern Renaissance Man. The two train together at Santa Clara Swim Club in Santa Clara, California, with their coach, Dick Jochums. Both men are breaststrokers, but Tom, pushed by Jochums, starts to set his sights on the 400 I.M. as well. Mullens spends time at the beginning of the book giving background information on Wilkens, Grote, and Jochums, as well as the sport of swimming in general. He sets the stage for a grueling year of training, and explains how monumental the road to the Olympic Games really is.

Tom Wilkens

 

Kurt Grote

 

Review

I love this book so far! As a swimmer myself, I find it fascinating to read about high level swimmers and how they got to where they are in the sport. Mullen does a great job of integrating factual information about the sport so that people who aren't as familiar with competitive swimming can still follow and understand what is going on. He also writes in an engaging way that makes the fatual information read like a novel. Also, it is clear that he has spent a lot of time with Grote, Wilkens, and Jochums, because it is almost like he knows their thoughts. When Jochums is giving a speech to a group of Olympic hopefuls, Mullen describes his actions with precision and insight: "He wasn't ready. Even the smallest of life's moments should be paced correctly. Once he opened his mouth, there would be no turning back. You don't ever ask to be a part of people's dreams and then later change your mind. But did he really want this?" (46). I like how Mullen gets inside the heads of the men he is writing about, and helps give the reader insight into what they are thinking and why they do what they do.

The pool at Santa Clara Swim Club

Focus

The focus for this week's reading was "questions." Here are some of the questions that came to me as I read:

• Will Wilkens and Grote both make the Olympic Team?
• How did P.H. Mullen (the author) decide to write this book? Does he have a swimming background, or did he just decide this would be interesting to follow?
• How will the new men that Jochums brings over from Stanford fit in with Wilkens and Grote?
• Will the book focus on any women swimmers as well, or just the men?
• What would it be like to have Jochums as a coach? How would I react to his leadership style?

Sources

Here are links to both Kurt Grote and Tom Wilkens' wikipedia pages. I think this is a good place to start to learn more about the men.