OMAHA — The United States is putting together potentially the greatest swim team in its history here at the Olympic Trials. Yet you wonder how good this swim team really is when you see one presence walking around the pool.
Lifeguards.
That’s right. The greatest swimmers in the world are being watched by more than 40 lifeguards. They prowl the practice pool and stand guard at the competition pool. You know, just in case Michael Phelps can’t make it to the wall.
“People laugh,” said lifeguard Amanda Kettle, below. ” ‘How much does that get paid?’ ”
Kettle, 21, is a Highlands Ranch native who has been a lifeguard in Omaha for four years. This job doesn’t pay — duh! — but it’s not as easy as it sounds. It’s not like Kettle spends her day in a chair overlooking the pool working through a good novel.
“In the practice pool (Tuesday) morning there was actually 11 kids in one lane, swimming up and down, up and down,” she said. “They’re on the same team and they all have the same routine. So you have 11 swimmers swimming backward at the same time. They can’t see each other. You’re going to get some accidents when they’re crossing each other.”
And what happens if they do knock each other out?
“Our main responsibility is to pull people out of the water if something happens, whether that’s a physical limitation or a medical issue,” she said. “Our job is to get them out of the water safely because you can’t do any CPR or you can’t do any medical thing in the water. It’s too difficult.”
So far, the swimmers have all made it out alive.
In past trials, swimmers have botched their flip turn and broken an ankle on the side of the pool.
However, it’s not just the swimmers who might need a lifeguard. Coaches, who have more nerves and weaker hearts than their swimmers, have the occasional accident.
“They’ll be running up and down and that’s what we’re supposed to watch,” Kettle said. “If they pass out and go into the water, we have to pull them out.”
They’re all in good hands with Kettle. She worked as a lifeguard at a water park — talk about nerves — and helped save a little girl who didn’t come up after jumping into a 10-foot diving well.
The Olympic Trials isn’t quite so nerve-wracking, unless you consider the toll of watching the anguished sobs of swimmers who miss out on their dream of making an Olympic team.
