{"id":502332,"date":"2022-04-12T03:11:26","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T10:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=502332"},"modified":"2022-04-12T04:43:51","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T11:43:51","slug":"an-homage-from-an-official-how-erik-vendt-played-the-starting-game-to-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/an-homage-from-an-official-how-erik-vendt-played-the-starting-game-to-perfection\/","title":{"rendered":"An Homage From An Official: How Erik Vendt Played the Starting Game to Perfection"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Homage From An Official: How Erik Vendt Played the Starting Game to Perfection<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Cynthia Millen Roberts<\/p>\n

It was at a Grand Prix Meet at the University of Michigan<\/a> where I observed the full beauty and brilliance of swimming, and it was exhibited so perfectly by a swimmer who did not win a race.<\/p>\n

I have been thinking about that swimmer often after the events of this year in collegiate swimming\u2014events which are an anathema and ugly antithesis to everything competitive swimming represents.<\/p>\n

I had become involved in swimming when our kids did. What else can a parent do when the meet is too far away to go home between races? It\u2019s one thing if your team is hosting the meet\u2014you work the meet in some way. But it\u2019s different when another team hosts, and you must sit for hours on backless metal bleachers. There are only so many ways you can get comfortable, and not for very long.<\/p>\n

After timing a few meets, it was suggested that officiating was the next step, so beginning in 1989, I started, going from mini-meets, to age group, high school, and eventually to NCAA, national meets, and more. I grew to love all parts of the sport and made dear friends who were volunteers like me. Ohio is blessed with a long tradition of great swimming on all levels, and it was two excellent officials there, Al Kurth<\/strong> and Pat Lunsford<\/strong>, who taught me every aspect of the meet. I soon became a Starter, and was fortunate to eventually participate in multiple national and international championship meets, including the Paralympics in Beijing.<\/p>\n

Starting most clearly exemplifies the fairness which is built in to every aspect of competitive swimming. The starter\u2019s first job is to make sure that the deck, and all areas of the swimming experience, are ready to provide each and every swimmer the best possible swim.<\/p>\n

Are the blocks secure? Are the flags even? Are the speakers working under each block? Are the lane lines even and taut? Are there any possible hazards on the deck? Is there anything which could interfere with the swimmer\u2019s focus at the start?<\/p>\n

But that is only one part of a starter\u2019s preparation. There was something more important that followed. My mentors taught me to study the swimmers as they were preparing for other races for which I was not the starter. How did they get themselves ready? Did they have any habitual actions prior to mounting the blocks? How quickly did they get on the blocks, and then what did they do once they were there? What I eventually learned was that the swimmers communicate to the starter and let him\/her know when they are ready to start. A good starter reads the swimmers and knows how much time to give them before gently saying the magic words: Take your marks. A great start is one in which every swimmer has gotten that opportunity to relax and has communicated this to the starter.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s their race, not mine.<\/p>\n

In May of 2006, I was a starter at the Eric Namesnik Memorial Grand Prix in Ann Arbor. The UM pool has always been one of my favorites because of the outstanding staff, excellent facilities, and electric spirit of the place. I knew each inch of the deck well, and always felt very comfortable there. This meet would feature many outstanding swimmers who hoped to make the 2008 Olympic team, so being comfortable was very important.<\/p>\n

While off-duty, I watched the swimmers as they prepared to race. I began to notice that one swimmer was watching the starter very intently. He was mentally noting the time between the referee\u2019s whistle which released the swimmers to the starter, the time when the starter called them down with \u201cTake your marks,\u201d and then the subsequent \u201cbeep\u201d of the release. He did this consistently throughout the prelims, to the point where he was seeming to predict when the starter would let go. I had seen swimmers do this occasionally, but not as intently as this one.<\/p>\n

Soon he was in one of my races. He calmly stepped up on the blocks and waited. When it seemed that everyone was ready, I asked the swimmers to take their marks. I noticed that he was the last to come down, waiting long enough to make the rest of the field begin to question, but not too long that I would call them up. He had hit the sweet spot. When I released the swimmers, he was the first off the block. He was perfectly wound up, not having stayed down too long, but just enough to be precisely ready to spring.<\/p>\n

He knew how to control the start. He knew that the last thing a starter wants to do is call up the swimmers (\u201cStand please\u201d). It discombobulates them and gets them out of their rhythm. So with patience, we will wait for a swimmer to come down, and keep them there to a certain point. He knew exactly how long I would wait, and he used that for his advantage. And he did this every time. With every starter.<\/p>\n

It was a thing of beauty to witness. I had never seen such intelligent preparation before, mirrored by his performance in the pool. He was the shortest swimmer in the field, but used every advantage he could to score very well.<\/p>\n

Between prelims and finals, I spoke to his coach. Did he realize that this swimmer knew how to control the start? In his own very colorful way, the coach said he wanted to see this for himself.<\/p>\n

Starters are trained to block out any surrounding noise or distraction. At UM, the starter has the entire boisterous Michigan\/Club Wolverine team to the right, and the warmup pool to the left. They all grew quiet as the final heat of the men\u2019s 400 IM came out. The coach came up directly behind me so that he could see over my shoulder what I saw. All eyes were on Michael Phelps<\/strong>\u2019 6\u20197\u201d wingspan as he flapped his arms in his traditional on-the-block prep. Other swimmers were fingering their googles or slapping their arms as usual. When all settled down, and they told me they were ready, I called them down: \u201cTake your marks.\u201d It was not until they were all down and in position, that Erik Vendt<\/strong>, in just the nick of time, came down, and then I had to let them go. The little guy had made them wait perhaps a nanosecond longer than they had wanted, but he got exactly the start he had planned for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell that little (bleep),\u201d Jon Urbanchek<\/strong><\/a> hissed.<\/p>\n

He shook his head, and began to laugh. He darted over to the other CW coaches, and with his typical animation, explained what he saw to the others. \u201cDo you know what that little (bleep)\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erik Vendt didn\u2019t win any individual races that day. He came in third in the 400 IM to Phelps and Robert Margalis<\/strong>. He came in second in the 1500 to Peter Vanderkaay<\/strong>. He would win gold in the 2008 Olympics for his contribution to the 800 freestyle relay team. But as he got out of the pool, with all of the other swimmers towering 6-8\u201d over him, I knew that I had watched the finest swimmer I would ever have the honor of seeing. As he walked by, I stopped him and shook his hand.<\/p>\n

I believe, with his twinkling eyes and charming smile, he knew why.<\/p>\n

Cynthia Millen Roberts was a USA Swim official, NCAA official, and International Paralympic Official for over 30 years, until she resigned in protest in December of 2021. As a supporter of Save Women\u2019s Sports, she continues to advocate for all athletes to compete fairly in categories based solely upon sex.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Homage From An Official: How Erik Vendt Played the Starting Game to Perfection By Cynthia Millen Roberts It was at a Grand Prix Meet at the University of 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