Oriwol returns to his swimming roots

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI

During the latter half of the 1990s, Tobias Oriwol was one of the bright lights and future stars for the Pointe Claire Swim Club (PCSC).

As an 11- and 12-year-old residing in the West Island, he set national age group records in the backstroke and individual medley before moving to Toronto with his family in 1999 and transferring to the Etobicoke Swim Club, where he eventually set a total of 22 national records. A 24-time youth national champion, Oriwol went on to spend four years at Stanford University in Paolo Alto, Calif., where he graduated last spring with a degree in urban planning.

Despite receiving a quality education at Stanford, he reached a plateau with its Cardinal swim team as far as personal best times went. That’s because as is often the case with many elite Canadian swimmers at NCAA schools on full scholarships, he often found himself just another competitor on a team whose main objective was to win every dual meet it entered. As well, because they had an entire team to worry about not only Oriwol, the personal attention from the Cardinal coaching staff was often lacking, and as a result, he was sometimes left to train on his own.

Last spring, at the age of 21, but refusing to give up on his Olympic dream, the six-foot-four, 187-pound Oriwol decided to return to where it all began for him, Montreal, and train full time at the National Training Centre located at the Olympic pool. There, for the first time in his life, he could concentrate on nothing but swimming, all the while benefiting from the world-class coaching of Paul Bergen and Pointe Claire resident Pierre Lebrun.

He also reacquainted himself with the PCSC, which he once again represents at all national and international meets.

“It’s so great being back in Montreal,” said Oriwol, who remains focused on the 200- and 400-metre individual medley events. “I live downtown, but I visit friends in the West Island almost every weekend. I keep in touch with PCSC head coach Peter Carpenter on a regular basis as well.”

He even returned last fall to PCSC for a training session with many of the club’s younger swimmers.

“When I walked in the door of the Malcolm Knox Aquatic Centre after all those years, everything seemed so different,” Oriwol said. “So much smaller than I remembered it as a youth.”

There’s nothing small about Oriwol’s swimming aspirations, though. His sights are firmly set on the 2008 Games in Beijing, where he hopes to become the first PCSC athlete to compete at an Olympiad since Craig Hutchison at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.

“We had to re-work almost every one of Tobias’ strokes,” Lebrun said. “Fortunately, he’s a hard worker and a good learner and is now back on track. The most important thing is he’s only 21, still developing, and has time. But you know, we’re working with him not to just qualify for Beijing — but to win a medal there as well.”