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Olympic silver medallist Kristy Kowal looks like a winner. "It wasn't hard to pick her out when she got off the plane," said City of Shreveport Swim Team head coach Butch Jordan, who hired Kowal to give a clinic to his swimmers Friday and Saturday. Even if you didn't know Kowal holds eight American, one world and three U.S. Open records, 12 NCAA titles and numerous NCAA records, you'd figure she was somebody just by looking at her. The 23-year-old, an education major at the University of Georgia and silver medalist in the 200-meter breaststroke at the Sydney Olympics, is 6-feet, 1-inch tall, slim, toned, tanned, walks with confidence and wears a perpetual smile as broad as her face - the physical sketch of a winner. In contrast, the message Kowal gave to the swimmers in her speech Saturday evening was, "You know me as a winner, but people don't see all the losses and disappointments I've also had." Kowal, like other winners, learned to use her losses as a tool. Jordan has been consistent in his effort to hire an Olympic medal winner to give clinics for his broad spectrum of age-group swimmers from age 5 to 17. The reason is obvious: his swimmers seem to listen more intently to the same information from an Olympian. Pre-varsity swimmer Sutton Davison explained why he may have listened a little closer when Kowal talked about the breaststroke. "Are you going to listen to your coach, who you can probably beat in the water, or to someone who has won a medal at being the fastest?" the 11-year-old asked. Jordan knows the Olympic medal brings with it a super hero status and motivates the swimmers and in the past has invited several other Olympians. Each brings with them a unique road to success, but not one of their stories is without disappoint or loss along the way. Kowal was a short mediocre age-group swimmer for the first six years after entering the sport at the age of five. "I stayed in swimming simply because I thought it was a lot of fun," Kowal said. To be honest though, she did have the Olympics on her life agenda by the age of eight. "I saw the Olympics on television and told my parents that's what I was going to do," Kowal said. "They laughed. I wasn't very good. It was my brother who came home with all the trophies." But when Kowal was in junior high school, she learned how to use loss and disappointment to her advantage. While all her friends were placed on the talented "A" team, Kowal was not on the "B" but placed on the "C" team. This made her so mad she aimed to prove everyone wrong, and she did. At the end of the season meet that summer, Kowal out-swam everyone on the "A" team. After growing six inches the summer before entering high school, Kowal really begin to hit her stride. She went to the Olympic trials the year she graduated high school. At the 1996 Olympic trials, Kowal was a favorite in the 100-meter breaststroke. She felt confident. But in the final heat of the qualifying 100 breast in which the top two swimmers would make the Olympic team, Kowal came in third by .017 of a second. That moment of disappointment had the ability to take the best athlete down and it took Kowal. She sank into the hole of self pity for three months. Then when it was time to head to Georgia on full scholarship, she made a mental decision to go on. During the 2000 Olympic trials, Kowal was trying to qualify for both the 100 and 200 breaststroke. On the blocks for the 100-breaststroke, Kowal was again peaked to perform. But unbelievably, Kowal once again missed her chance to earn a spot on the Olympic team in that event, this time by .001 of a second. She had one more try and one day to re-group. "My coach told me, 'You can quit or go forward,' and I decided I was not going to watch the Olympics from home again," Kowal said. Kowal says it was the "race of her life" and she set an American record in her win to qualify for the 200-breaststroke, which we now know eventually lead her to a podium spot at Sydney. As Kowal looks back on her life, she sees a pattern. "I've always used by biggest disappointments to drive me forward," Kowal said. Her message to the swimmers is clear. Kowal intends to keep competing through the 2004 Olympics. |
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