Sunset Mesa resident Jordan Wilimovsky had his first taste of Olympic-level swimming competition when he attempted to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team in the 1500-meter freestyle preliminaries on Sunday in Omaha, Nebraska. Swimming in the same heat as three-time Olympic medalist Peter Vanderkaay, Wilimovsky swam 15:33.29, his lifetime best, and finished 17th overall. Entering the trials, he was seeded 24th out of 96 competitors with a time of 15.34.94, which he swam in May at the Speedo Grand Championship in Irving. ’It was awesome to be here, it was so exciting,’ Wilimovsky told the Palisadian-Post Monday. The Malibu High graduate, who swims for Team Santa Monica said he was nervous sitting in the waiting room underneath the pool before he entered the stadium filled with 13,000 people. ’It’s all about experience,’ said his coach Dave Kelsheimer. ‘As he walked out, there were two high-definition cameras in the swimmers’ faces.’ Wilimovsky had planned to swim in the low 31 seconds for each lap, but said ‘I went out a little fast.’ At the 400-meter mark, his time was 4:04, a personal best. This pace cost him the kick he normally has at the end of a race. Wilimovsky’s family’mom Wendy, dad Rolf and brother Alec’were at the trials in Omaha. ’It was horribly nerve-wracking watching,’ Wendy said. ‘Jordan just turned 18, so there had to be some nerves in play for him.’ Wilimovsky is 5’10’ and 140 pounds, which some consider slight for a swimmer. ‘He uses his physiology as an advantage,’ Kelsheimer said. ‘A guy like that can bounce back faster and he can out-train most big guys. Jordan will be a serious contender for the next Olympic trials.’ In a March interview with the Post, Kelsheimer also described Wilimovsky as a late bloomer. ’He went from a swimmer on the fringe of qualifying as a sectional swimmer (top swimmers in Nevada and California) to making the cut for the Olympic trials.’ Others remember Wilimovsky on the Paly-Y swim team as a 9-year-old, smaller than his peers, with few wins in his first five years. He swam for the Y until the team dissolved in 2007 with the closing of the Temescal Canyon pool. In July 2006, the Post recorded the results of Paly Y swimmers at a long-course meet in Santa Barbara. ‘Jordan Wilimovsky, 12, dropped his time in the 50 butterfly and finished in the middle of the group of forty swimmers in the events he entered.’ That December, he attended the Las Vegas Winter Age Group meet, but failed to place. A year later at a YMCA meet, he was second in the 100 and 200 back and third in the 400 I.M. and the 200 free. His first two years of high school at Malibu, Wilimovsky played water polo and swam, then switched to swimming full-time. ’He got crazy fast,’ said former Y and TSM teammate Shelby Pascoe, who now swims the mile for Ithaca College. In 2011, Wilimovsky set school records in the 200 and 500 freestyle, the 200 I.M. and the 100 backstroke, but did not compete his senior year, because of long-distance training. Wilimovsky was invited to the USA Swimming Junior Nationals in Fresno in 2011. He first qualified for the Olympic trials in the Washington Open in Seattle this past January with a time of 15:51. This spring he won the 1500-meter race at the California/Nevada Sectional Champion, and in February he won the 1650-yard freestyle (15:25.01) at the SoCal Regional Junior Olympics. The top qualifier into the 1500 Olympic trials was Andrew Gemmell in 14:57.29. Wilimovsky swam against Gemmell in the U.S. Open Water Nationals 10K race in April, leading for the first 9K before Gemmell won in 1:58.03. Wilimovsky, who went in ranked 50th, took ninth in 1:58.45 and was called a swimmer to watch. ’My last piece of advice was ‘Don’t lead,” said Kelsheimer, noting that the older swimmers have the experience that Wilimovsky will eventually acquire. ‘The Florida race was good because it showed Jordan he could compete against the best.’ Wilimovsky, who will attend Northwestern this fall, swims between 75,000 and 80,000 yards a week, with double practices four days a week, one practice on Wednesday afternoon and one on Saturday morning at the Santa Monica College pool. His coach has been selected by USA Swimming to serve as assistant coach of the U.S. National Junior Team for the 2012 FINA World Junior Open Water Championships in Welland, Canada, this August. The U.S. National team, including Wilimovsky, will compete against swimmers from more than 30 nations. ’Jordan has the heart, the intelligence and the physiology to be one of the best,’ Kelsheimer, said.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
