“I started swimming when I left school,” the athlete remembered, describing his improbable rise to Olympic swimming stardom. There was no swimming pool available to us.
All things considered, the aspiring Olympian could only train in a hotel pool that was around thirteen meters in length. What about coaches? Put everything aside; Eric worked out in the water by himself.
Despite his lack of swimming expertise, he trained alone, he said. The pool was only open from 5 to 6 in the morning, so I could only get in three hours of training each week.
Fortunately, he could augment this by swimming in rivers and the sea, with the help of a few fisherman.
His memory served him well. The fisherman would instruct me on proper swimming and leg technique. Nothing about it screamed professionalism.
So, Eric showed up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics without ever having swum in a 50-meter-long Olympic pool.
