Sydney-bound Elis carry on Olympic tradition

Three members of a dying breed head to the 2000 Games to compete and coach.

ELI OLYMPIANS: Clockwise from top, Steven Fahy, MC '01, George Gleason, TC '01 (photos by Julia Tiernan), Mark Young, ES '68 (photo courtesy Sports Publicity).

What young athlete hasn't watched the Olympics on television and dreamed that he or she would compete one day? This fall in Sydney, Australia, three Yalies—two undergraduates and one coach—will live out their childhood fantasies and compete in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Swimmers Stephen Fahy, MC '01, and George Gleason, TC '01, and women's track and field coach Mark Young, ES '68, will travel Down Under in late summer to prepare for competition. "This is definitely my lifelong dream," Fahy said.

As unique an accomplishment as qualifying for the Olympics is, Yalies are no strangers to world-class competition. Fahy, Gleason, and Young follow in a lofty line of Eli Oympians: 152 Yalies have taken part in the modern (post-1896) Olympics either as players or coaches, which is more than many countries have sent to the games during this time. Yalies have won 88 medals, including 49 golds.

Is there something about Yale that is particularly conducive to producing Olympians? Perhaps, but numbers can be deceiving. A mere fraction of Yale's Olympians have competed in the past 25 years. These days, with the increasing number of professionals in the Olympics, Yale coaches, not players, are much more likely to be selected to join Olympic teams. If this trend continues, Eli athletes might not be participating in the oldest sports competition in the world for much longer.

Lapping the competition

For the first time since 1976, Yale swimmers are Olympic-bound. Fahy qualified for the Bermudan national team, Gleason for the Virgin Islands squad. Gleason admitted that making the American national team would have been a difficult feat for any Eli, since only the top two swimmers in each event qualify. "I always hoped to go to the Olympics," he said. "Coming from the Virgin Islands, there's a legitimate chance to qualify. Coming from the U.S., it's almost impossible."

But swimming coach Frank Keefe pointed out that although each nation is allowed to send one swimmer to the Olympics regardless of their time, both Fahy and Gleason both easily made the international qualifying times. "I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with them," Keefe said. "They really had no [swimming] credentials when they were applying, and some other schools weren't interested in them and told them they wouldn't be able to compete. I'm sure they'd like to eat their words now."

One of the most remarkable aspects of Fahy and Gleason's accomplishment is that neither of them were intense swimmers in secondary school. Fahy did not train seriously until he came to Yale. "My first practice here, I almost drowned," he said. "In Bermuda I didn't have the proper coaches or workouts. I wasn't preparing for meets correctly. It was frustrating." But things changed rapidly once Fahy started swimming for Yale, and he began breaking records and swimming faster than he ever had. Fahy missed qualifying for the Olympics by three-tenths of a second in 1996, but after training over the summer of 1999 with Keefe, he made the team at the Pan Am Games this August.

Gleason started swimming when he was eight years old with his friends after school, but said that he wasn't nearly as fast when he got to Yale as he is now. "Coach Keefe and the whole program here have made such a difference for me," he said. "Swimming with 30 dedicated guys every day is incredible." Gleason qualified for the Olympics three weeks ago at a championship meet.

Both Fahy and Gleason will train all summer in New Haven with Keefe in preparation for the games. Neither is expecting to win any medals in Sydney, as they will face stiff competition, especially from native Australians. Both say that placing in the top 16 in their events is a reasonable goal. Fahy and Gleason will actually be competing against one another in one race, the 200 individual medley. But neither swimmer is worried about a rivalry between them. "I just want to swim my best time ever," Fahy said. "Wherever that leaves me, I know I'll be happy with it."

Leading by example

Keefe not only coaches two Olympians, he has also twice been an Olympian himself, serving as the assistant men and women's swimming coach in 1984 and the men and women's manager in 1988. He has no plans to join the coaching ranks in Sydney, though he may go to the games to support Fahy and Gleason.

Though Keefe is likely to only be a spectator at the games, Young will be serving as assistant women's track and field coach for the U.S. team. He will be primarily responsible for supervising women's middle distance events. Unfortunately, there have been few Eli track and field athletes to join the Olympic ranks in the recent past. Young feels that this trend is due to the increased number of professionals who stay involved in track and field after their collegiate years. "In the old days, as soon as runners had fulfilled their Olympic dreams they had to go to work," he said. "Now you can win $50,000 for winning one race. So, many of our athletes are competing into their late 20s and 30s."

Men's hockey coach Tim Taylor has noticed the same phenomenon, but to a more extreme degree. Taylor was the head men's hockey coach in the 1994 games, the last year before National Hockey League players were allowed to compete in the Olympics. "Now the Olympic games do not distinguish between the amateur and the professional athlete," he said, acknowledging that there might never be another Yale undergraduate on the Olympic hockey squad again.

Head fencing coach Harry Harutunian coached the Olympic fencing team in 1984, but he noted that it is increasingly difficult for Yale undergraduates to qualify. "Olympic fencing is almost coming to the professional level," he said. "You need almost six or eight hours every day in practice."

For the 1996 Atlanta games, though, one of Harutunian's best did make the grade: Peter Devine, MC '99, was one of three American qualifiers. Devine took a year off from school to prepare for his Olympic experience. "It was a really intense process," he said. "There were about 10 months of a selection period with 10 international and six domestic tournaments. Eight months in, I clinched the second spot on the team." Devine had an unlucky draw once competition began, and ended up losing in the first round. But when he returned to Yale, he had a successful year as captain and was offered the job of assistant fencing coach upon graduation. Devine feels that it is possible for another Eli to follow in his footsteps as an Olympian fencer. "Certainly Yale has the ability to generate Olympians," he said. "Qualifying is extremely hard, but I believe that we have one incoming freshman who has a good chance to go to the 2004 Games."

Sailing to gold

Yale's varsity athletes are not the only Elis going to Sydney. J.J. Isler, BK '85 competed on the sailing team while at Yale, won a bronze medal in the Barcelona Olympics, and is headed Down Under this year. Yale sailing has an illustrious Olympic history—in the past two decades, Yalies have won three medals in Olympic sailing. "I think the rest of the Yale community doesn't realize what a powerhouse Yale is in Olympic sailing because we're not a varsity sport," Isler said.

COURTESY YALE CORINTHIAN YACHT CLUB Yale's sailing team has sent many sailors to the Olympics.

Louise van Voorhis, BR '91, who was an alternate in Barcelona, felt that her sailing experience at Yale prepared her well for international competition. "I got experience organizing events with team logistics, fund raising, high-level training, and ever-present team politics," she said. "I used every ounce of these to get me to the Olympics." Isler agreed that her time at Yale was invaluable. "At New England schools, the competition is so high," she explained. "At a college regatta, you'll race 30 or more races in a weekend. You're never better at starting and mark roundings than when you graduate college. I'm trying to relearn all those lessons from college."

Tyler Cheung, ES '01, who competes on the current sailing team, agreed that the centuries-old Yale Yacht Club is an ideal environment for fostering Olympians. "The Yacht Club encourages a lot of independent effort and experimentation," he said. "It's a very open environment, and you're not under too much pressure. This atmosphere promotes people to continue after graduation."

The Olympic dream

"Just being named an Olympian, whether as a player or a coach, being able to represent your country is a thrill," Taylor said. He remembers the opening ceremonies as one of the most exciting elements of his time at the 1994 Games. "It's quite a rush to march in there with a group of athletes who have given an enormous amount to be there," he said.

Gleason agreed, saying that he was looking forward to the Opening Ceremonies because there was a possibility that he would be carrying the Virgin Islands flag. "There are only four members on the Virgin Islands team, so I figure I have a 25 percent chance right now," he said. Even though the Olympics have become increasingly professional, and the Elis no longer send dozens of athletes to the games, Yalies just might be able to turn on their televisions in September and see one of their own carrying a flag into the Olympic stadium. Graphic by Cristina Sosa.

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