Finding Passion for the Pool

By Paul Tenorio

Sunday, June 29, 2008

It seems almost funny now to reflect back to just three years ago, when Lenah Run assistant coach Jonathan Chica first started swimming competitively.

"He could swim freestyle, but he wouldn't put his face in [the water]," Froggers coach Tamara Yaunches said. "He didn't know how to do a flip turn. He didn't know how to do breaststroke or butterfly. He had never swam before except in the pool for fun. So it was teaching him everything."

It's a far cry from where Chica stands now as a year-round competitor with Snowbird Aquatics and one of the leaders on Lenah Run's teams. The 17-year old took immediately to the pool, Yaunches said, picking up strokes easily and quickly developing into a talent.

"He's a natural swimmer," Yaunches said. "But a lot of [his growth] has to do with his dedication. He gets himself up for morning practices, he wanted to do year-round as soon as he did that first summer … He just picked it up. It's incredible. I really wish he would have started when he was nine, I really do."

Chica, a native of Colombia who moved to the United States when he was seven years old, said he quickly developed a passion for the sport after joining the Lenah Run team.

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Swim Meet, June 28

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A swimmer competes in the backstroke. (Paul Tenorio)

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A swimmer competes in the butterfly at the Lenah Run - Woodlea Manor meet in Leesburg. (Paul Tenorio)

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Ian Decker, 15, of Woodlea Manor, won all five events in which he competed at Saturday's meet. (Paul Tenorio)

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A swimmer competes in backstroke at the Lenah Run - Woodlea Manor meet in Leesburg Saturday morning. (Paul Tenorio)

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Jonathan Chica leads the boys 15-18 50 yard breaststroke in Saturday's Lenah Run-Woodlea Manor meet. (Paul Tenorio)

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Ian Decker, left, and Jake Koenig, right, sit at the clerk of course during Saturday's meet. (Paul Tenorio)

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"My dad was like, 'Why don't you try it,' and I was like 'Okay,'" Chica recalled. "The first time I saw those jammers [swimsuits], I was like 'Eww, gross.' But I got into it and Tamara taught me all the strokes. She's the one that basically taught me how to swim."

Chica said he swam a 39.00 in the 50-breast by the end of that first summer, and said Yaunches encouraged him to join a year-round club. After joining a team, Chica had his first exposure to the type of dedication it took to swim for a competitive team.

"It was a big change because I was swimming four to five times a week and I had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning," he said. "I was 14 then, so I had my brother drive me or my dad and that was always a problem. Waking them up it was just so hard, because I had to wake myself up, they wouldn't wake me up."

But the early morning practices soon became routine, and Chica said they helped him in more than just athletic ways.

"I think swimming made me a lot more responsible in every aspect," he said. "I used to do whatever I wanted, and my grades got better when I started swimming. It made me responsible, it taught me how to manage my time."

That responsibility has rubbed off on the younger swimmers on the team, according to Yaunches, who said Chica is a role model and someone "the kids in the neighborhood adore."

Chica graduated this year from Way of Faith Christian Academy in Fairfax and will head back to Colombia to attend La Universidad del Norte in the city of Barranquilla, where he will study medicine. And while the school doesn't have a swim team, Chica said he found a local swim team and will try to continue getting in the pool – though he doubts it'll be in the same capacity as his current schedule.

"It's another country and the pool is not that clean," Chica said. "But it's something. I really want to [keep swimming] but I don't know if I'm going to be able to because the medical program down there is really hard. … I might swim twice a week but I don't know if I'm going to do it competitively."

Regardless of whether he is able to stay in the pool as much as he'd like, Chica said his short time swimming has been an important part of his life.

"I am always going to do this for the rest of my life," Chica said. "Tamara gave me a passion for swimming that I will always have."

Tagged: Old Dominion Swim League, swimming

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