The smell of chlorine and the sound of kids swimming dominated the natatorium this past Saturday as Kate Ziegler, U.S. Olympic and professional swimmer, taught members of the LA Gold Swim Team some tips on their techniques.
More than 40 kids from the tri-state area showed up Saturday afternoon so they could learn from a professional swimmer.
“I’m here today to share with you and to hopefully help you, not just in the pool but outside the pool, grow to be the very best athlete, person, student, big sibling or friend that you possibly can,” Ziegler said to the swimmers before starting the swimming drills.
The swimmers then took to the pool, performing drills and watching by the example of Ziegler who showed them the correct way to swim different strokes. After helping the students in the pool, Ziegler talked about her life story and her experience traveling the world and swimming in two Olympics for the U.S. team and many other international contests.
Ziegler’s impressive list of swimming accomplishments include being part of two U.S. Olympic swim teams both in Beijing 2008 and London 2012, five gold medals in the world championships and three gold medals in the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. Perhaps one of Ziegler’s biggest achievements was breaking the record for 1500m Freestyle in 2007 set by American swimmer Janet Evans and at the time was the longest-standing American record.
While she is not training for the Olympics of World championships, Ziegler spends her time travelling the country, teaching kids how to swim and sharing her life experiences.
“I think one of the greatest things about swimming is that it teaches you life lessons. It’s not just about who touches the wall first or who wins the gold medal or going to the Olympics or anything like that. It’s the life lessons and life skills that we develop as athletes and swimmers… My parents always said to me, ‘We want you to be the best swimmer you can possibly be, but we want you to be a much better person,’” Ziegler said.
Hannah Mayes, head coach for the LA Gold Swim Team, said Ziegler’s workshop had a great advantage for the kids on the swim team.
“They can listen to me every day and it’s just like a broken record, but for them to have somebody at her level come in and give them another perspective and work on technique… Any opportunity they have to grow is good,” said Mayes.
Mayes also said it was good for the kids to have such a positive role model like Ziegler who they can model themselves after to look up to.
