Stroke of fortune leads to Olympics

Decision to train at UA lands Grevers runner-up finish, place on U.S. team By Greg Hansen July 2, 2008 At the downtown intersection of Dodge and 10th Street, no more than a 100-meter backstroke from the Qwest Center, is a massive wall mural of Tucson swimmer Matt Grevers. The swimsuit manufacturers of TYR invested both in Grevers and the mural; it is a decidedly off-Broadway marketing campaign to battle Speedo, the Nike of swimming. So how is TYR doing? Grevers punched his ticket to the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday night in the Olympic swimming trials, finishing second in the 100 backstroke — his "other'' event — while knocking some of Speedo's biggest names, among them superstar Ryan Lochte, off the charts. Afterward, the 6-foot-8-inch Grevers, who goes by "Dutch'' to his friends at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center, was a mush of emotions. "My mom's never gonna stop crying,'' he said, on the brink of tears himself. At that moment, UA swimming coaches Frank Busch and Rick DeMont pushed through a curtain separating the swimmers from media interviews and moved the needle all the way into the real-tears zone. DeMont kissed Grevers on the cheek. Busch embraced him and hung on for a few seconds. It was the culmination of a 10-month experiment in which Grevers eschewed a USA Swimming offer to train at a North Carolina swimming factory and, instead, invest in a smaller and more intimate coaching clinic from Busch, DeMont and the Hillenbrand Aquatic staff. "I guess I'm the real thing,'' Grevers gushed. Busch and DeMont initially recruited Grevers out of Lake Forest, Ill., in the fall of 2002 and thought they had him. But Grevers chose to stay home and attend Northwestern, where he won three individual NCAA titles and became the trendy choice to someday be an international swimming star. But Grevers stalled. He could not get off the doorstep to stardom. Because his college coach knew Busch, it was suggested Grevers move to Tucson and attempt to improve his freestyle time. In the American swimming community, Busch and DeMont are known as Freestyle-R-Us. And wouldn't you know it, Grevers goes to the Olympics as a backstroker. "Sometimes, when the pressure isn't on so much, you swim instead of thinking too much,'' Busch said Tuesday. "There wasn't a lot of pressure on Matt in the backstroke. But it wasn't that he didn't prepare in that event. "You always want to see a kid get what they deserve, and in this case Matt got what he worked for.'' Grevers came to Omaha on the big radar screen with blips aplenty. He was ranked No. 3 in the 100 butterfly, fourth in the 100 freestyle, fifth in the 50 freestyle and sixth in the backstroke. If Tuesday's results set a precedent, he will be as busy as Michael Phelps in Beijing. "Going to the Arizona coaches lifted me to the next level,'' Grevers said Tuesday. "Rick has worked with me the most; he's the most influential coach I've ever had. The way he relaxes my mind, it's like he's a zen teacher.'' That is not the first time DeMont has been accused of zenlike effectiveness. A world-record-holder in the early 1970s and a disputed gold medal winner at the 1972 Munich Olympics, DeMont was generally considered the No. 2 swimmer in America (to Mark Spitz). He arrived in Tucson about 30 years ago and has worked his magic on Olympic medalists since. He later was hired by South Africa to coach at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the 2004 Athens Olympics, at which time his four UA-based swimmers produced a world record and gold medal in the 4x100 relay. Now it is Grevers who endorses DeMont as coach-of-the-stars. If anyone knows swim coaches, Grevers is the man. His mother, Anja, is a swim coach in Illinois. His sister, Carolyn, is a high school swimming coach in Lake Forest. His brother, Andy, coaches a Northwestern age-group program. Thus, the choice of Busch and DeMont has some currency. "In Tucson,'' he said, "I just swim. I live the life of a professional athlete. I train against Olympic gold medalists every day. I didn't want to be a financial burden on my parents, but I wanted to train where I could be my best.'' Since arriving in Tucson, Grevers has gained about 20 pounds on his angular frame. You cannot visibly see where the 20 pounds has been distributed, but you can see the results. Today, Grevers begins the 100 freestyle. Saturday he starts competition in the 50 freestyle. He'll no longer be some faceless guy on a mural next to the Qwest Center. "I've lost my role as the dark horse kid,'' he said with a laugh. "I'll remember this for the rest of my life.''