Athlete of the Week: George Gleason

JULIA TIERNAN/YH

George Gleason, TC '01 Backstroke and freestyle Hometown: St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands Birthday: Aug. 8, 1979 Major: Sociology Favorite movie: The Last of the Mohicans Best Yale sports moment: Setting a school record in the 200 backstroke last spring at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet. At the same competition, he also anchored the freestyle relay, where he beat the fastest Harvard swimmer.

Gleason grew up in St. Croix, although he periodically lived in New York City. He attended a tiny high school on the island—there were only 30 students in his graduating class—where he swam and played baseball. He attracted the attention of Yale swimming's coaching staff, and he "liked the school and the people when I came on my recruiting trip."

During his sophomore season, Gleason set school records in the 200-meter freestyle and 200-meter backstroke, and he swam consistently on both the medley and freestyle relay teams. On Sat., Jan. 22, he took home first place in both the 100- and 200-meter backstroke, propelling the Bulldogs over Lehigh, a team that was previously undefeated. With the 177-130 victory, the Bulldogs remained undefeated both overall and in the Ivy League. Gleason and his teammates are looking ahead to the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet, which Gleason describes as the biggest meet of the regular season. Typically, these three teams vie for the Ivy title, so the meet should be a strong indicator of Yale's talent.

In addition to his role on the Yale team, Gleason is also one of the top swimmers on the U.S. Virgin Islands national team. A precocious competitor, he has been a member of the team since he was 13 and has participated in national meets against Caribbean and South American teams. He also appeared in the Pan-American Games last summer, where he placed as high as ninth. This September, Gleason will most likely represent the Virgin Islands in the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. To make it to Sydney, Gleason will have to swim under the qualifying time, a mark he narrowly missed by 2/100ths of a second at the Pan-American games. If he does qualify for the Olympics, he will stay in New Haven for the summer to train and take classes. He would concentrate on freestyle events, because he would likely compete in that event in Sydney even though he usually swims backstroke for Yale.

Gleason predicts that he would "probably be the only athlete to represent the Virgin Islands in swimming." Although being his country's lone representative could pile additional pressure on him in an already stressful competition, Gleason's efforts at Yale certainly indicate that he is prepared to stand up against the best.

Photo by Julia Tiernan.

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