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The Disneyland Report > Disney News > Athens Olympic medalists tutor young Utah swimmers

Disney News

Athens Olympic medalists tutor young Utah swimmers

By Mike Cronin
The Salt Lake Tribune

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS - Still under water and dolphin-kicking after launching herself from the starting block, 11-year-old Rylee Van Komen still couldn't believe the man standing by the pool was Michael Phelps.

The Cottonwood Heights Elementary sixth-grader was swimming a 100-meter butterfly leg Friday in a relay race against two teams - one that included perhaps the best swimmer ever.

"It's shocking," Rylee whispered afterward. She didn't know what else to say about meeting Phelps, the 19-year-old aquatic prodigy who brought home six gold and two bronze medals from the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.

Rylee and her team, which included another Athens gold medalist, Lenny Krayzelburg, 28, finished second to Phelps' team Friday at Cottonwood Heights Recreation Center.
Phelps, Krayzelburg and a third Olympic champion, Ian Crocker, staged a swimming demonstration for hundreds of kids and swam with more than a dozen others during their visit to Utah, one of 12 stops on their "Disney's Swim With the Stars" tour.
"This is the next generation of swimmers," Krayzelburg said. "Everyone is so interested right now because the Olympics just ended. This is the best time to show how great swimming is."

For Phelps, the sport's allure is its difficulty.

"Nothing comes easy," he said. "There are a lot of challenges and you have to fight through them. I love it. That's why I've stuck with it. I have so many goals and I won't stop until I achieve them."

That includes breaking American Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in 1972.

Phelps figures he has two more Olympics to try.

Before the gold medalists arrived Friday morning, many students lined the recreation center's driveway, cheering and screaming while they waited for the bus.

That gleeful anticipation wasn't limited to the children.

Tyler Howe, 24, a fifth-grade teacher at Cottonwood Heights Elementary, said he was so excited to meet the Olympic titlists that he couldn't sleep.

"I stayed up until 12:30 and got up at 6:30," he said. "My wife got after me because I was making so much noise this morning. I don't know if I've ever arrived to work so early. The doors were still locked when I got here."

Terri Roylance, a reading specialist at Cottonwood Heights, persuaded a colleague to cover for her just so she could see "what Michael Phelps looks like.

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