Hallowed Hometowns of the United States’ Paris Olympic Swimmers
By Charles Hartley, Guest Contributor
There’s a beautiful, patriotic, and down-to-Earth song called “Hometown” by Bruce Springsteen. If you’ve ever heard it, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
It takes you right back to where you grew up, wherever that was, to what it looked like, what you did there as a kid, how it made you feel.
Treat yourself by listening to Bruce capture all of this like only he can:
This whole idea of hometowns grabbed me this morning as I researched the hometowns of 48 awesome young people who qualified for the U.S. Olympic Swim Team and will compete in a couple of weeks on the most regal stage in all of swimming, the Paris Olympics.
I immediately gravitated to the hometown of Olympian Katharine Berkoff from Missoula, Montana, so far away from the swimming hotbeds of our country which, as you know, are often in warmer weather states.
For the first time in my life, I traveled to that part of the country a few months ago crossing into Montana while en route to Yellowstone National Park. Montana is stunningly far away from seemingly anything, way up there yonder, decorated with mountains so big they’re overwhelming to stare at, so large they don’t even make logical sense. It’s fascinating to realize that Berkoff grew up and ascended from one of America’s most unpopulated and mountainous places to become one of America’s best swimmers. Wonder if she swam outside in rivers and streams surrounded on both sides by those massive mountains.
I have a natural affinity for far-away remote America places, desolation and vast nothingness, for reasons I’m not quite sure of. With that understanding, you can see why I’m all in rooting for Katharine to bring glory to Montana, a place known for so much more than Olympic swimmers but now has one to galvanize around.
She’s the only one from that state who made the team and I’m guessing one of the first ever from there.
Yet she’s not the only one on this time coming from a swimming state not traditionally known for Olympic swimming stars. On this year’s elite team are Mariah Denigan (Walton, Kentucky); Matt King (Snohomish, Washington); and Paige Madden (Mobile, Alabama).
Because of where they’re from I find them inherently intriguing. Rising up from non-swimming meccas. How did they do it? Don’t know. But wouldn’t it be storybook for all of them to win medals so we could see hometowners from Montana, Kentucky, and Alabama go wild with joy about their hometown heroes, maybe learn more about what people from those places care about, what gives them hope?
In my research — all done for you — I also wanted to figure out if the usual states for swimming superstars held true for this team. Figured California, Texas and Florida would rank at the top of the list.
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Turns out that it’s actually Indiana with six qualifiers, the most of any of our states (Drew Kibler, Lilly King, Aaron Shackell, Alex Shackell, Luke Whitlock, and Blake Pieroni). Tied for second with four each were Maryland (Phoebe Bacon, Erin Gemmell, Chase Kalisz, and Katie Ledecky) and Florida (Caeleb Dressel, Bobby Finke, Ryan Murphy, and Emma Weyant).
Three states had three qualifiers each: New Jersey (Jack Alexy, Nic Fink, and Matthew Fallon); California (Erika Connolly, Abbey Weitzeil, and Luca Urlando); and Pennsylvania (Chris Guiliano, Josh Matheny, and Ivan Puskovitch).
These findings are intriguing to think about. Is Indianapolis now the center of the swimming universe based on the number of Olympic swimmers from there? If so, why? Is Indiana now more of a swimming state than what it has always been fanatical about, basketball?
Why not Florida, California, Maryland or Texas with the most Olympic swimmers? And what about Pennsylvania rising into this illustrious company? Didn’t see that coming. More investment in indoor than other states in recent years? Are they using ChatGPT more extensively than other states to get their state’s swimmers to drop times? Tell us what you believe to be the answer to this compelling question.
In my research I also wanted to find out who the oldest and youngest swimmers on this team are just because, well, I wanted to know and because, feeling magnanimous, I wanted to share the information and well-packaged data with all of you. Bubbling to the surface was the fact that the five oldest members of the team are all men (Nic Fink – 31; Chase Kalisz – 30; Ryan Held – 29; Ryan Murphy – 29; and Blake Pieroni – 28). The four oldest women are 27: Lilly King, Katie Ledecky, Simone Manuel, and Abbey Weitzeil.
Not sure what to make of this. Maybe men tend to get or remain faster, on average, than women as they get older. But we would need a larger sample size to make any conclusive assertions. And the Olympics are coming fast so we may not have time for that. Like all other things, it will come down to time and money. Tell us what your theory is and maybe that will lurch us towards the answer.
The youngest members of the team are 17-year-olds Thomas Heilman and Claire Weinstein; Katie Grimes and Luke Whitlock are 18.
It’s always a nationwide thrill in America when a younger swimmer medals at the Olympic Games like Katie Ledecky did at 15 and Michael Phelps at 19. Would love to see all of them touch the wall for medals and then Americans by the bushel weeping with joy. “Oh, look at those young people getting glory for our country.” You can hear this being yelped in kitchens across the fruited plains.
Another research finding: the sweetest of the sweet spot ages to make this team is 21 years old. Nine on this team are that age. Close behind are the seven 22-year-olds.
The most surprising finding, at least for me, was that Katie Grimes is only 18 years old and will be competing in her second Olympics. Feels like she’s been around for a long time and yet her swimming career, in a sense, is just taking off. Also unexpected is she’s from Las Vegas which is not where many Olympic swimmers grow up; mostly people gamble there.
And she swims different types of events than most swimmers such as the 6.2 mile marathon swim (if the Seine River becomes less disgusting) and 1500 freestyle (in a pool so water will be chlorinated). Katie Grimes grinds out the longest of the long races. Totally fascinating member of this year’s team for sure.
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One other nugget: I studied the names of all these swimmers so I could share what I believe to be the one with the most alluring name figuring you would want to know my opinion on this. It’s not a close call. The winning name is Luke Whitlock. It looks cool and sounds cooler. K sounds please our ears, according to studies, and he has two in his name. What a double dipper the name Luke Whitlock is.
All qualifiers for this team have intriguing backstories just like you and me.
They are now practicing as one team, together, getting ready to make us all proud of them because all of them are from places close to their hearts, where they grew up hoping to become Olympic swimmers out in their hallowed hometowns in the United States of America, the places Bruce Springsteen sang about in his song.
