 
Promises to keep
By CHUCK SLATER
SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: July 6, 2004)
LARCHMONT — It was a promise Jenny Thompson made to herself. There was
a second promise made by her coach to Thompson's dying mother.
Margrid Thompson died in February at age 65 after her second
battle with cancer. She was, her daughter says, the main reason there
are 10 Olympic medals (eight gold), 26 U.S. national titles and 14
world championships — the most of any swimmer — on the Jenny Thompson
resume.
Margrid and Jenny Thompson always had a special relationship.
Margrid was always there for Jenny. Whatever it took to make her
daughter a champion, she would do.
"I'd like to end my career on a high note," Jenny said, "to honor her."
That is why Thompson has come out of retirement and taken time
off from her third-year medical studies at Columbia University. That is
why she has been training furiously at the Badger Swim Club in
Larchmont under its internationally renowned coach, John Collins.
The 31-year-old Thompson — America's most decorated female
Olympian in history — is back. With Collins at her side, she's going
for one final shot at Olympic glory.
"Margrid made me promise I'd help Jenny get to Athens," Collins said. "I told her I'd do my best."
Thompson's bid begins tomorrow at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Long Beach, Calif.
Collins, for his part, terms preparing Thompson "an honor and a responsibility."
Raising three older brothers and Jenny as a single parent,
Margrid Thompson was working near her home in Massachusetts as a
medical technician when her daughter showed a special aptitude in the
pool. She moved her family to Dover, N.H., so that Jenny could train
with the strong Seacoast Swim Club, even though it meant a 90-minute
commute each way to her job.
"Mom was always supportive; she was always there for me,"
Thompson said recently, a few days before leaving for Long Beach. "She
was working full-time at a stressful job and raising four kids alone. I
don't know how she did it."
Aaron Thompson, a swimming coach and the youngest of the
Thompson brothers, said his sister had a "special relationship" with
their mother. Collins, too, saw it often.
"Margrid would stand out in the stands — tall, lanky and with
an athletic build," Collins said. "Her life was wrapped around Jenny's
swimming.
"She was at all her meets; somehow she even made it to
Australia for the Pan Pacs," he added, referring to the Pan Pacific
Championships. "And after a meet, mother and daughter always managed to
get together for dinner. They were very close."
Thompson started training with Badger even before taking a
leave of absence from her medical studies. In cold weather, she worked
with Collins and his Badger corps at the Purchase College pool.
"She doesn't act like she's better than anyone else," said
Bridget O'Connor, a recent Scarsdale graduate who, like Thompson,
trains at Badger and will compete in the Olympic trials. "When I met
her at the nationals, she stopped to say hello to me on the deck. She's
so nice."
Even when training after leaving school, it was not with the
swim-all-day-like-the-fish approach Thompson took as the youngster who
came out of landlocked New Hampshire in 1987 and started putting the
Floridians and Californians in her wake.
"I spent an hour and a half to two hours in the pool, six days
a week," Thompson said, "and did cross-training four days a week:
weights, yoga and cardiovascular stuff."
And recently, Collins said, twice-a-week, intense double workouts in the pool were added.
"She hasn't lost a step," he said.
She may, however, have to go faster than she ever has to repulse
a host of young swimmers who were in training trunks when her career
touched off.
At Long Beach, the competition will extend over eight days,
with preliminaries and finals that parallel the Olympic timetable the
swimmers will have to deal with in Athens later in the summer. Collins
said Thompson will compete in the 100-meter butterfly and 100 freestyle
and perhaps the 50 butterfly, "although that's such a crapshoot, we're
not sure."
Thompson has performed solidly in preparatory meets. At the
Quebec Cup in Montreal last month, she won the 100 freestyle in 54.9
seconds, within a second of the time with which she set an American
record (54.07) in the 2000 Olympic trials. She also took the 100
butterfly, the only other event she entered, in 58.2.
"The meet went very well," Collins said.
A week later, at the Janet Evans Invitational in the Long Beach
pool where she will compete starting tomorrow, Thompson took third in
the 100 fly in 59.2 seconds but was the fastest American in the event.
"We need to go 58 or better," Collins said.
The trials facility is a new 10,000-seat outdoor stadium, which could work in Thompson's favor.
"Not many of the other girls have performed before such a large crowd," Collins said.
In addition, Thompson could be chosen on a relay foursome by the
U.S. Olympic coaches. In 1996, she missed out in individual
competition, yet ended up with three relay golds.
"She is the best relay swimmer in history," Collins said flatly.
That "the best relay swimmer in history" is still competing at 31 is partly because of relaxed amateur rules.
Thompson is currently a spokeswoman for Speedo and models their
Fastskin FSII suits. She is also a spokesperson for a foot medication.
"I'm fortunate that with them I can swim and make a good living and even pay for my medical school," Thompson said.
This Olympic bid is Thompson's second return from retirement.
The first was after the 2000 Olympics, where she won three gold medals
and a bronze and participated in two world-record relays.
Then Sept. 11 happened.
"I wanted to help some way," Thompson said. "My way was swimming."
She organized the still-active Swim Across America to raise
money for cancer research, and began giving clinics in her sport. She
has helped the young swimmers at Badger, too, once they got over the
shock of who was sharing the pool with them.
"That first time she showed up unannounced, I couldn't believe
it," said Ryan Emanuel of Bronxville, now 16 and a USA Swimming
sectional champion in the backstroke. " 'That looks like Jenny
Thompson,' a few of us said to each other. She's really friendly and
easy to talk to."
"She doesn't want to be treated like a goddess," said Alex
Forrester, a 13-year-old girl from Briarcliff who has national
age-group rankings in half a dozen events, mainly freestyle and
butterfly.
"The Badger kids have been a lot of fun," Thompson said, "and
John Collins is a great coach. They both helped make my last year an
enjoyable one. My preparation has been good, and I'm looking forward to
the trials."
She has no doubts about the outcome. Nor about something else.
"When I get to Athens," she said, "my mother will be there in spirit."
U.S. Olympic Trials
When: Tomorrow-July 14
Where: Long Beach, Calif.
TV: Friday, 8-9 p.m. (live); Sunday, 8-9 p.m. (live); July 18 (tape), 1-3 p.m. (all three telecasts on NBC)
Local competitors: Distance freestyler Kimi Kelly, a Mount
Vernon native and Ursuline graduate now at Virginia; and Bridget
O'Connor of Scarsdale, a three-time state high school butterfly
champion headed for Harvard. Like Jenny Thompson, both train at Badger
Swim Club in Larchmont.
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