By JOE PLASKO    (April 15, 2002)

Swimmers crowded into the Panther Valley High School pool Saturday for an unique opportunity - to meet, hear and be coached by a real Olympic medalist.

Kristy Kowal, a silver medalist in the 200 meter breaststroke for the United States in the 2000 OIympics at Sydney, Australia, took time out from her busy training schedule to provide a clinic for 115 youth swimmers, ranging from Kindergarten to high school seniors.

Kowal, a Wyomissing area native who swam scholastically for Wilson High School in West Lawn, Berks County, was available for the clinic through Ulitimate Swim Techniques, Inc., and sponsored through the efforts of businesses in the Panther Valley area.

In fact, Kowal is actually linked to one of the program's major sponsors, Air Products and Chemicals, as her father is employed by Air Product's Trexlertown facility.

"I do the Ultimate Swim Technique Clinics, and there's also the Girl Power Swim Clinic that's just for girls, and I also do talks for Speedo," said Kowal. "I get to travel all over the place, but this was especially cool because I got to come home, and my dad's work was involved in getting this pool back together. It's great to be able to do this."

Kowal's clinic was made available free of charge to Panther Valley High School swimnmers and members of the Panther Valley Piranhas youth swim team thanks to the donations of sponsors. There was a fee for non-PV swimmers, but the program still attracted participants from Tamaqua, Blue Mountain, Mahanoy Area and Hazleton.

"We even had a few people come up from Maryland," said Panther Valley swim coach Liz Pinkey, who also coaches the Piranhas.

The idea for Kowal, the American record holder in the 100 and 200 meter breaststroke, to come to Panther Valley originated when Pinkey and assistant coach Geri Vavra attended the Eastern States Coaches Clinic in October, and Vavra picked up a flyer advertising a clinic that features Olympic swimmers.

"Geri took the ball and ran with it," said Pinkey. "We talked to the Speedo rep who had a list of names of Olympic swimmers. When I saw Kristy's name, I knew she was from the Reading area and I remembered her swimming when I first started coaching. I also knew her father worked for Air Products, and this was a great way to pull it all together. Geri contacted her, and she was more than happy to come up here and do this for us."

Kowal, 23, is currently attending the University of Georgia in Athens, where she will graduate next month with a degree in Education, as she hopes to eventually pursue a career as an elementary teacher.

In 2004, however, the genial Kowal plans to be in another Athens, the one in Greece, where she is looking to continue her Olympic medal hunt as one of the world's premiere breaststrokers.

Kowal trains between 3-6 hours a day in the pool to keep in top form and she swims up to 54 miles a week, preparing for the Pan Pacific Championships in Japan this summer. She is also training for the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain in the Summer of 2003, with the Summer Olympics the following year.

Due to the wide range of ages at the clinic, Kowal divided her instruction into different sessions for the younger and older groups.

"One thing I've learned through teaching is that you can't talk to an 8 year-old the same way you do to someone in high school," said Kowal. "With the younger kids, you talk to them the way you think they'd want to be talked to; you don't talk above their heads, you try and bring it down to their level so they understand where you're coming from."

Those in high school learned ways to improve their strokes that could prove to be valuable in dropping their times.

"There were a lot of new drills we did that we haven't done with our own coaches, so we learned new ways to improve our technique," said Stef Gardiner, a senior swimmer at Panther Valley. "The fun of the experience is to hear it from an Olympic swimmer. None of us get to hear that every day."

"A lot of the drill work is really beneficial, and while I'm a backstroker, I think I learned more here in a couple of hours from Kristy than I did in a whole week of swim camp over the summer," said Lindsay Cella, a junior who swims for Tamaqua.

Kowal also spoke about her experiences as a swimmer, noting that she didn't hit her competitive stride until high school. At Wilson, she was a state champion in the breaststroke, 200 individual medley and as part of the 400 freestyle relay.

"One thing that's unique about Kristy is that, in her talk, she said she really didn't break out until she was 15," said Pinkey. "For kids who are swimming for such a long time and don't feel like they are getting anywhere, or maybe frustrated by the fact they are in high school and not swimming as fast as they'd like to, it's nice for them to hear she was at that age when she started with her accomplishments."

"When I was young, I didn't train to be a speed demon, I just swam to have fun," said Kowal. "That was my main focus then, and that's why I can still swim competitively today. I haven't grown tired of the sport, where if I had been training intensely when I was younger, I would have gotten tired of it much quicker."

Kowal's story on her rise to Olympic prominence was inspirational for the swimmers.

"I though how she got interested in swimming was cool," said Alyssa Tirpak, 9, of Lake Hauto. "I want to be an Olympic swimmer when I grow up, and I learned that you shouldn't give up, you should just keep on trying."

"At swim clinics, they don't often tell us about what it's going to be like in college, like Kristy did," said Eileen Gurcsik, a freshman swimmer at Tamaqua. "A lot of coaches can't relate to what it feels like to be in the Olympics. I liked when she talked about that, college and careers and balancing it."

After the clinic, Kowal signed autographs, displayed her Olympic silver medal and let many of the youngsters try it on. She smiled as she posed for dozens of photos with the swimmers and their parents.

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