As if there were any question, all you need to know about NC State swimming and diving’s return as one of the top varsity programs on campus is recent news from Denmark and Lithuania.
A trio of Wolfpack swimmers from those countries—junior Soren Dahl and sophomore Anton Ipsen from Denmark and senior Simonas Bilis from Lithuania—qualified for the upcoming 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
Having already helped the Wolfpack win back-to-back ACC championships, they will now look for similar success against the best swimmers in the world.
Dahl recently qualified in the 4X200-meter relay team, while Ipsen qualified in the 400-meter freestyle at the Danish Olympic Trials. Bilis swam fast enough in the Canada Trails to represent Lithuania in both the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle, the events that earned eventual medalists and former Wolfpackers David Fox and Cullen Jones their trips to the Olympics.
It’s pretty fitting since the pool is where the Wolfpack first made a splash in Olympic competition. In all, Wolfpack swimming and diving has produced 11 previous Olympians, which is nearly four times as many as any other varsity sport.
Jones, a three-time medalist in Beijing and London, has a chance to make his third consecutive U.S. Olympic team when he competes in the U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, from June 26-July 3, along with a handful of current Wolfpack swimmers.
Jonathan Boffa, a 2014 alum, is looking to make the Italian team. Incoming freshman Andreas Vazaios has already qualified to represent his home country of Greece. From the women’s team, Lotta Nevalainen will head to the European championships in a couple of weeks, looking for a spot on a relay team for her native Finland.
Holloway admits that his team’s training schedule based on not just the ACC and NCAA championships, but also for various Olympic trials and the possibility of going to Rio.
“We wanted them to be successful for NC State and for their respective countries,” Holloway said. “That’s important to us.”
Holloway guided the Wolfpack men to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA’s the highest in school history, and the women to a ninth-place finish. He wants to be even better in the future and sending his swimmers to both the World Championships and the Olympics will help him reach the ultimate goal for both programs, which is an NCAA championship.
The Wolfpack certainly has the history in the sport, particularly with the Olympics, to attract the best swimmers in the world, going back to the days of legendary coaches Willis Casey and Don Easterling. Holloway, a five-time All-American as a Wolfpack swimmer, just completed his fourth season as head coach of his alma mater.
“We feel like we are getting back to those days where we had really good consistent success and getting our program where we want to be,” Holloway said.
All-American and NC State Athletic Hall of Fame member Steve Rerych was the first Wolfpack athletic to qualify for the Olympics, winning a pair of gold medals for the United States in Mexico City in 1968. He swam with the legendary Mark Spitz on the 400-meter and 800-meter relay teams that blazed by everyone else in the politically charged Games.
There were no swimmers in the 1972 Munich Games, but a trio the Pack’s finest represented multiple countries at the 1976 Montreal Games. Steve Gregg won a silver medal in the 200-meter butterfly and Dan Harrigan won a bronze medal in the 200-meter backstroke.
Duncan Goodhew, a native of Great Britain, won the first of his three Olympic medals in Montreal, taking bronze in the 100-meter breast. He won two more at the U.S.-boycotted 1980 Moscow Games in the former Soviet Union, taking gold in the 100-meter breaststroke and bronze in the 400-medley relay.
The London native returned home after he graduated from NC State and helped organize the swimming competition at the 2012 London Games, where former Wolfpack All-American and NCAA champion Cullen Jones made his second Olympic appearance.
Four Olympiads after Goodhew won gold, Wolfpack All-American and NCAA champion David Fox won gold as part of the United States’ 4X100 relay team at the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Games.
Jones repeated that feat as part of the U.S. 4X100 relay team at the 2008 Beijing Games in China in his first Olympics. Jones won a pair of silver medals, one in the 50-meter freestyle and one in the 4X100 relay, in London four years later.
Like the three who have already qualified for this year, a number of former Wolfpack swimmers have represented their native countries. Nickos Fokianos swam for Greece at the 1988 Seoul Games, while Nick Paleocrassas swam for Greece at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Diver Agnes Gerlach, the only produce of the NC State women’s program to compete in the Olympics, represented Hungary in Seoul in 1988 and in Barcelona in 1992.
Bank Intharapichai swam for Thailand and Carlos Santander swam for Venezuela at the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Games with Fox.
Swimmer Dan Velez also represented Puerto Rico at the Beijing Games.
Now, the Wolfpack has a chance to add to those accomplishments with a good showing in Rio.
“It does give us a big sense of pride in what our swimmers are doing,” Holloway said. “It also gives us a reason to recommit to our training and keep getting better.”
Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu.
