My swimmers are tired of hearing from me when we are about to do something important (although
everything is important :-) at practice: " Guys this is The Defining Moment of Your Swimming
Career". They just to think it was funny now it is just a phrase. What they don't really
understand is there are many moments each day that will define our life and will send us at a
new and exciting path in our life. Like the picture above was one of the defining moments in my
swimming career and the path I was going to take at a hard moment in my life.
A
couple of weeks ago I was talking on the phone with my old coach and one of my best friends
Joszef Nagy and in a challenging way (like always for Jozsi) he asked me that if he emailed me
an old picture, if I could tell him if I remembered our conversation at that moment in time. In
less than thirty seconds after receiving the email I emailed him back with the answer.
The picture is from the summer of 1989 when Mike Barrowman invited me to train with him at
Curl Burke Swim Club. Mike swam for the University of Michigan and I swam for Indiana
University. Joszef had asked Mike to find a training partner for the summer and he heard that I
was a good trainer, so he asked me if I would like to train with him that summer that he was
coached by a very good Hungarian coach. He told me great things about Joszef, but most important
for me was that since I knew I was going to transfer schools that if I went back to Spain it
would be very dif difficult for me to really make a good choice. I thought if I go to train with
him in Washington DC it would be a lot easier for me to keep in contact with the college coaches
and also go on few recruiting visits.
My first choice was Texas since for two years
I watched many coaches interact with his swimmers and I thought Eddie Reese was the best, but I
also took recruiting trips to Florida, UCLA. I was going to go and take a recruiting visit to
Texas and Arizona when the moment that will change my life was capture by this picture.
Jozsef in that instant asked me: "Sergio what are you looking for in a University? What do
you want?" My answer was "I just want to find a coach that will coach me and take care of me, so
I can be the best I can be at the 92 Olympics in my hometown. I also need a scholarship so I can
afford my education". He looked at me and he said " What about if I get a job as an assistant at
a school in the DC area, would you stay and train with me if you had a scholarship" and my
answer was "YES".
In the weeks that I had been training with him we became close,
probably because my way of thinking and my Spanish background. We had very similar backgrounds
and we connected very well at the intellectual level. I had no doubts that after my short
experience with him he could help me be the best in my hometown at the '92 Olympic Games.
I am very thankful for that moment and now to have it in this picture is even better. That
moment in time really defined my life in a way that I can only be thankful. it brought me some
very hard times, like my friendship with Mike since he and his parents thought that I was trying
to steel his coach. After a while he realized that it was probably the best thing that could had
happened since now he would have a good training partner that would help him train to achieve
his ultimate goal. Win the Gold medal at the Olympics. Who better than me that I was there to
remind him every set, every day that in the 88 Games I got a medal and he got fourth.
After a couple of weeks I contacted all the college coaches that were recruiting me and
told them that I made my decision to stay in DC. I did not know where since I had to wait until
Joszef got a job as an assistant. So I went back to Spain and waited until one day he called me
and told me that he was an assistant at The American University and that the papers for the
scholarship were in the mail. The rest is history ;-)
Now, in the '92 Games I did
not get what I wanted, and I swam slower than my personal best from two years earlier. It was
devastating to get fourth at the Olympics and more in your hometown where I was expected to at
least to win a medal. But the decision at that time gave me something far better than any medal.
It started another path to a great life full of great experiences as a swimmer and as a person
but most important it lead me to meet my wife Sandy. I met Sandy first day in school and even
though we did not go out until eight months later it has been already twenty two years together
which has provided us with two great kids (Harley & Cobi) and a very interesting life around
different countries. Sandy has helped me me through very hard times as a swimmer and as coach,
plus she is an amazing mother to our kids, and that is why I believe 100% that this picture was
a "Defining Moment In My Life Career".
Thank you Joszef for sharing it with me, so
I can share it with my swimmers and hopefully when I tell them that " this is the Defining
Moment of Your Swimming Careers" they understand what I mean.