Local Swimmers Have Olympic Aspirations

The 2012 Summer Olympics are still a year and a half away but already several Burke area swimmers have qualified for the Olympic trials. The trials will be held one month before the Olympics to determine who will represent the United States in London.

Two qualifiers swim for Curl-Burke Swim Club and train at Burke Racquet and Swim Club. Both Joe Pascale, 27, and Zach Hayden, 23, have qualified in the 50-meter freestyle. Another Curl-Burke swimmer who has qualified for trials, Ellen Baumgardner, attends the University of Arizona but will train in Burke when school is out.    

Ashley Danner, a junior at George Mason University who graduated from Lake Braddock Secondary School, also qualified. Danner, 20, also qualified for the Olympic trials in 2008 but did not make the U.S. team.

USA Swimming sets the qualifying time for each event three years out, and any swimmer that beats that time at a sanctioned meet is eligible to compete at the trials, according to Curl-Burke Head Coach Pete Morgan. Between 60 and 100 swimmers qualify for each event, Morgan said, but only the top two finishers will make the team.

“It really distinguishes you to make trials,” Morgan said, adding that Curl-Burke is fortunate to have trained a number of Olympians and would-be Olympians at its facilities throughout the Washington D.C. area.

The qualifying time for the 50 freestyle is 23.49 seconds. Hayden qualified with a time of 23.08; Pascale swam a 23.28. But they say they need to shave at least a second off that time to be truly competitive at trials. A second doesn’t sound like much, but for elite swimmers like them, it’s enormous.

Hayden, who trains while attending George Mason and waiting tables, said he is trying to improve in three-tenth increments. Hayden also has a decision to make – whether to try out for Britain’s Olympic team instead. He is eligible because his mother was born in Britain. Hayden said he believes his chance of making that team is better because the competition is not as stiff. 

Pascale is training full-time so he swims eight practices a week, with just one day off. After failing to qualify for the 2008 trials, he took a couple of years off from swimming and dabbled in mixed martial arts, then returned to the pool to deal with what he calls “unfinished business.”  He said the love of competition, and thinking about his friends who dropped off from swimming, keep him motivated at an age when people typically are launching their careers and settling down.

For Danner, it’s about learning from her experience in 2008 when her nerves got the best of her.  So far she has qualified in the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter breaststroke; in 2008 she also swam the 200-meter breaststroke and the 200-meter individual medley.  Danner said she wasn’t really focused in 2008 and was “overwhelmed.”

But she said competing in college has made her more confident and she now believes she can be as good as the elite swimmers. She now works harder and it has paid off. Danner finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke in the NCAA Championship last year and is considered the favorite to win this year. One website even referred to her as the “breakout” swimmer of the year.

“I thought that was really cool,” Danner said.