Army swimming & diving coach Mickey Wender was selected to be the head coach for American Samoa for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Rising Army sophomore Stewart Glenister, who’s parents are natives of American Samoa, will be competing in the games as well. Wender will be chronicling his experiences throughout his 10-day stay in China with the following diary:
Thursday, August 14:
Stew done good! National record, best time, heat winner. Our man Stewart Glenister finished 71st out of 97 swimmers and was the second place finisher from the Oceanic region. He went 1.5 seconds faster than his entry time. We are all very proud of him. It's also a bit of a relief to finally have had a chance to do what we came here for. He handled himself really well before and after the race. The whole thing was really exciting. I was able to rally some support from the people sitting in our section. The teams from Angola, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Belgium, and Great Britain did a great yell for him as he was getting on the blocks (us little guys need to stick together). As I've mentioned, one of my main focus points in working with him has been the future and learning how to handle his emotions. He is definitely learning and growing and I have no doubt that this experience will set him up for a great career at Army (He's already talking about London is 2012- who knows...)
Most of you know that I consider myself a life coach as well as a swimming coach. Our sport has the potential to teach people so many important things about how to maximize your human potential- in and out of the pool (if swimming were just all about going back and forth with your head down in the water I would never be interested in it). Tonight, I had a chance to really help Stew learn some important life lessons. There has been a very attractive Chinese student assigned to our group. Her (Americanized) name is Gina, and Stew has had his eye on her for awhile now. After the meet we got tickets to basketball (USA-Greece) and Stew invited Gina. We strategized a game plan for asking her and how the whole thing would play out (he even got her a stuffed animal as a gift). I am proud to say that he executed the plan to perfection and tomorrow night they are going to karaoke together. I am very proud of him (and don't worry I asked him if it was okay for me to write about this).
The American team is still swimming well, and all in all, the meet has been unbelievable. The cube is a really fast pool and the level of competition has surprised a lot of people. Several swimmers have said- "Man, I didn't think it would take such a fast time to make it back for semis or finals." Whenever someone says something like this I think to myself "This is the Olympics- what did you expect?" Swimming is a game of inches and success or failure is often determined by 1/100th of a second. The US team had two swimmers in two consecutive events yesterday miss out on finals by 1/100th. One swimmer who would never say something like that is my favorite Olympian- Erik Vendt. He's an alternate on the 800 free relay (after just missing qualifying for the team in his best event- the 1500) and he won a gold medal yesterday after swimming the relay in the qualifying heats. He is a true warrior and epitomizes all that is good about the sport. He and I have had a nice friendship for years- since he was swimming at USC (one day ask me to tell you the rat story). On more than one occasion, he has told me about his fascination with West Point. I know he would be a great cadet and as he told me the story about getting his gold medal (at a team meeting) I got a big lump in my throat. It may sound trite to say but just making it here is a huge accomplishment and to win a medal is major. I had an interesting conversation with one of the US coaches tonight who said that he thought in a way Michael was kind of ruining the experience for some of the other swimmers. He said that it's almost become not enough to "just win one medal". Are you kidding??
As this whole experience comes to an end, I find myself getting a little philosophical about everything. I must admit that the Olympics has had a profound effect on me. It is truly one of, if not the greatest, example of all that is good about humanity. It is one of the most pure, beautiful things I have ever experienced. I don't want it to end and I will certainly try to find a way to get back here again. I am definitely excited to go back to West Point and I've had some unique perspectives about what the USMA experience is all about after being here. I think the ancient Greeks would be very proud of the West Point education. It truly embodies the Olympic ideals of developing the whole person- body, mind, and spirit. It is such a unique institution in so many ways. I'm sure the other academies are great (especially if you're interested in boats or airplanes) but what makes West Point different is the focus on the human element in every component of the experience. I feel so lucky to be a part of the greatest institution of higher learning known to mankind. As you all know, it is universally respected and admired. One of the big things that people like to do in and around the Olympic Village is trade Olympic pins. Every country produces a pin and it's a lot of fun to trade them. American Samoa only gave us about a dozen pins but I brought a bunch of the "A" pins from Army. Much to my surprise, when people find out that the A is for Army and that I'm from West Point, they almost always want to trade. In my opinion West Point is probably one of the few things on this planet where the name say's it all. And I get to work there...
I'd like to share something personal before I go to bed. Growing up, I was a momma's boy. Not the soft/wimpy kind. I just really loved my mom and she taught me almost everything I know about how to interact with people. She was a master communicator and just had a way of making people feel comfortable, secure and important. She was a rock for my brothers and my sister and my Dad. She always knew the right thing to say and was always there when we needed her. Unfortunately, God took her from us as a very young woman. It was a devastating event for our family and we've all developed our own coping strategies. One of the things that I've always done was to use the quiet time when the National anthem was playing to pray and talk to her. For many years, the playing of the Star Spangled banner has become synonymous with talking to my Mom. It's always helped me get focused and relaxed prior to a competition and is one of those things in life that I truly cherish. (The thought just dawned on me that maybe that's one of the reasons why I love West Point so much). I'm glad the Americans are doing so well because I've been able to spend a lot of time with Mom over the past week. Talk to you tomorrow...
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