Palisadian Jay Mortenson swam in three events at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, and 18 years later he remembers ike it was yesterday. He competed for the United States in the 100 Backstroke, 100 Butterfly and the Medley Relay, taking 10th in the backstroke, sixth in the butterfly and winning a gold in the relay. “It was very intense,” Mortenson says of his Olympic experience. “Going there, being there and swimming–it was all great. ” Born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, Mortenson started swimming at the local YMCA at the age of 4. He progressed through the different levels of named lessons at the Y, like minnows and sharks. He also remembers not passing his first attempt in one of the courses because he couldn’t perform a front dive. Still, he persevered and began competing when he was 8. His father and uncle, both basketball players, had undergone several knee operations and Mortensen’s mother wanted her son in a sport that would protect his knees. Like basketball, swimming is a sport in which height can be an advantage. When Mortenson swam the butterfly in the Olympics, however, he was only the sixth tallest competitor in the event at six feet, four and a half inches. “When I was eight, I was the kind of guy who was in the top eight, but not particularly close to winning,” Mortenson says of his early meets. “The reason I stuck with it is because I liked it. I had fun doing it. It’s too hard to do a sport if you don’t enjoy it.”
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