The 2014 edition of the TYR Jax50 was another huge success at all levels. Beginning with raising money to teach underprivileged children how to be water safe to the FAST showdown between world class swimmers on Saturday night to the clinic where our young swimmers worked directly with these world class swimmers in the pool.
First of all, I have to thank the coaching staff at Bolles and in particular Coach Michael Walker and Coach Payton Brooks. Both of them worked very hard the two weeks prior to the event, organizing and making sure that the 5th edition of the TYR Jax50 ran smoothly. Michael and Payton took charge of every detail while i was out of town for different conferences and camps. Thank you Michael and Payton! I must also thank the following people without whom this would not have come together: Coach Jason Calanog and his wife Tracey, Coach Jon Sakovich, Coach Dale Porter, Robin Gibbons (the one that keeps us in line ;-), Coach Steve Lazarton, Coach Paige Hamilton, Coach Lauren Liston, Coach Nancy Hennesy, Madison Brooks, USA Swimming Officials Mr. & Mrs. Breault, my brother Marcos and all the volunteers who worked very hard to make it run smoothly. Thank You All!!!
The three day event hosted almost 500 swimmers from all over Florida, along with teams from Georgia and North Carolina. Every year we have seen steady growth. The coaches love the format of the meet and the young swimmers really enjoy racing alongside the Pros. After five years, I still see more opportunities to grow this one of a kind event and ways to improve and I’m looking forward to the next edition in 2015.
Another important part of the puzzle without which this event would not have happened are our sponsors. TYR has been with us since day one and has assisted us in creating a base for the Planet Swim Foundation, while also helping to develop our Jax50 brand. A big “thank you” to all of our sponsors that have supported us this 5th edition.
The 2014 edition of the TYR Jax50 has raised $14,203.00 to teach underprivileged children how to be water safe making it the most successful edition so far! Also our Olympians-Pros-Postgrads were able to take home a total of $12,830.00 between prize money and the Clinic they hosted Sunday morning. A total of over $27,033.00 was generated by the event for the underprivileged children and the Olympians-Pros-Postgrads. This is a great step forward in helping to “Share the Power of Swimming”.
The Dual Sprint Challange that took place Saturday night was a lot of fun and full of fast swimming from the younger ones to the Pros. What impressed me the most is that Amanda Weir, Karl Krug and Josh Schneider arrived that morning after flying in on the red eye from the Mesa Grand Prix to make it to the event. Amanda has attended the Jax50 since our first edition. We also had the honor of having Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, Lara Jackson, Madison Kennedy, Tao Li, Dax Hill, Paul Murray, Mark Weber, Mario Todorovich and Omar Pinzon. Five countries were represented in the TYR Jax50 Finals, USA, Bahamas, Croatia, Singapore and Colombia, and five of those swimmers have been in at least two Olympic Games. Very exciting!
The winners of the 2014 TYR Jax50 were:
Josh Schneider ———- 19″32
Madison Kennedy ——- 21″92
The younger swimmers battled it out for some very cool awards:
1st place TYR high tech suit and a towel
2nd place TYR jacket, pants and towel
3r place practice suit
4th TYR Jax50
Follow the following links to learn more about the Tyr Jax50 and what Planet Swim Foundation does to “Share the Power of Swimming”.
Also a BIG THANK YOU to the Florida Swim Network for working so hard in making our event a successful one. Joe & Bess Auer, Mike Kennedy and the whole FSN crew are so passionate and grateful and I can thank them enough. Here is a link to the event videos and interviews. Enjoy!
Florida Swim Network TYR Jax50 Page
Again THANK YOU to everyone for making this 5th Edition of the TYR Jax50 be a reality and also the most successful yet. Now it is time to expand and set it up around the country 😉 #BELIEVE!
