UC San Diego Sends Two on Quest for Olympic Gold in Beijing

Ioana Patringenaru & Christine Clark | July 21, 2008

Making it onto an Olympic team is tough enough. Making it twice puts an athlete’s achievement in a whole different league. And that’s exactly what a UC San Diego student and an alumna have managed to do this year. Carrie Johnson, 24, will compete in the Olympics for the second time as a flat-water kayaker. Julie Swail Ertel, 35, is trying to bring back a medal in the Olympic triathlon in Beijing.

UCSD's Carrie Johnson poses with her kayak. Beijing marks her second Olympic appearance.

Click here to read the UCSD Olympic Kayaker blog on Johnson.

This isn’t just Swail Ertel’s second appearance at the Olympics. It’s also her second Olympic sport. Before becoming a professional triathlete, she led the U.S. water polo team to a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. This year, she will race in Beijing Aug. 18. Johnson, now a UCSD senior, took part in her first Olympics in Athens, Greece, in 2004. She will compete every other day from Aug. 18 to 23.

Both women’s achievements show that UCSD, a Division II school, can turn out high-level athletes, said Earl Edwards, the campus’ athletics director. “I am extremely proud,” Edwards said. “The Olympics are really the epitome of the sports experience.”

Both women say they’ve learned discipline and multitasking during their years on campus. “It is really about managing time,” Johnson said. “I don’t go out a lot on the weekends, but I am really close with my teammates. For us training doubles as your social life.” Swail Ertel recalled juggling practices, academically challenging classes and studying to become an economics major.

“I learned you never get behind,” the triathlete said. “You always stay on top on things.”

Both women started competitive sports early, many years before they came to UCSD. Swail Ertel had been a competitive swimmer since age 6. Johnson started out as a competitive gymnast. But here the two athletes’ paths diverge.

Injuries and challenges

Johnson gave up gymnastics 11 years ago after breaking her arm. She then enrolled in the San Diego Junior Lifeguard Program. There, she met Olympian Chris Barlow, who helped her discover a passion for kayaking. “I fell in love with paddling,” Johnson said. “It is just completely different sport. It is not a judged sport; it is just about who gets to the finish line the fastest.”

Johnson won two silvers and a gold at the 1998 U.S. National Championships – her first major national competition, according to the United States Olympic Committee. Three years later, in 2001, she enrolled at UCSD. Then another injury interrupted her athletic career.

Johnson practices at the ARCO Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista.

In 2003, she was forced to sit out the kayak season after hurting her shoulder. While she recuperated from that injury, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune condition that causes inflammation of the digestive tract. She had a major flare-up and had to sit out the 2003 world championships. She needed that break to get her health back and get back on track, she said. But it took an emotional toll.

 “Being forced to take time off the water really made me realize how much I wanted to be on the water,” she said. “It gave me a new outlook on why I wanted to paddle.”

She started taking medications and her condition stabilized. She worked with her doctor and her coach to modify her training when needed. In 2004, at age 20, she became the youngest member of the Olympic kayaking team.

“As a gymnast going to the Olympics was a dream, as a kayaker it became a goal,” she said. “It is an amazing experience. It is like the ultimate test for an athlete.”

The Olympics and the future

In Athens, Johnson came in 10th overall in a series of events. After her first Olympics, her results were mixed in 2005. But she bounced back in 2006. She took three quarters off school to prepare for Beijing and has qualified for a spot on her second Olympic team. She now lives at the ARCO Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. Her performance brings her tantalizingly close to a shot at becoming the first U.S. paddler to win an Olympic medal in sprint since 1992, according to the USOC.

Julie Swail Ertel celebrates qualifying for the Olympics at the Olympic Trials race April 19 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Click here to read a Q&A with Olympic triathlete Julie Swail Ertel

Johnson, a biochemistry major at Revelle College, said she will focus on school again after the Olympics, but she is not sure what the future holds after UCSD. She is interested in forensic science, but also enjoys her biochemistry classes, she explained. “I am just seeing where it takes me,” she said.

Swail Ertel, the water polo player turned triathlete, recalls a similar sense of puzzlement after graduating from UCSD in 1995. During her junior year, she realized she didn’t have a passion for economics. She also couldn’t imagine herself in a job that required sitting at a desk all day. She decided to get a teaching credential, then switched to a master’s in physical education. She hoped to coach. She also kept up with water polo, playing for a club.

In 1997, water polo became an Olympic sport. Swail Ertel had been on the national team since 1993, two years after enrolling at UCSD. With the Olympics in mind, the women’s team worked tirelessly for 2 ½ years to bring its game up to medaling level. Swail Ertel became captain. She remembers wanting to showcase her country’s talent to the world at the Olympics. “It’s completely indescribable,” she said of her experience in Australia. She and her teammates brought home the silver from Sydney.

Becoming a triathlete

After the games, Swail Ertel once again tried to figure out what to do with her life and how to fill the empty hours that used to be taken up by practice and workouts. An Olympic team chiropractor suggested triathlon, one of the most time-consuming sports. He took Swail Ertel to Catalina, where she took part in her first competition. “I loved it,” she said.

Olympic triathlons consist of a 1.5 km swim (.9 miles), a 40 km bike ride (24.8 miles), and a 10 km run (6.2 miles). As a former water polo player, swimming was no trouble for Swail Ertel. Biking also had been part of her training routine and of her daily life at UCSD. She didn’t own a car until the last six months of her senior year, so she biked everywhere, she explained. Running, however, would prove to be Swail Ertel’s most difficult sport, but the one she loves most. “I like the freedom of it,” she said. “You can run anywhere.”

Switching from a team sport to an individual one had its pros and cons, Swail Ertel said. Team players have to show up every day and give everything they have, she said. But if they’re struggling, teammates can help. “As an individual, if you’re having a bad day, there’s nowhere to hide,” she said. But it’s also okay to take a day off, she added.

Preparing for Beijing

Swail Ertel racing.

To prepare for Beijing, Swail Ertel recently did a stint at the Chula Vista training center where Johnson lives. The triathlete’s training schedule included 7 ½ hours of swimming spread over five days, 13 hours of biking over four days and four hours of running weekly. For recovery, she also practiced yoga and Pilates. “It’s kind of a full-time job,” she said of her regimen. Her goal is to bring back a medal from Beijing, or to help one of her U.S. triathlon teammates win one, she also said.

It doesn’t seem strange to go back to the Olympics, even in a completely different sport, Swail Ertel said. But to Denny Harper, her former water polo coach at UCSD, said feels surreal. “It’s incredible,” he said. “Once was enough.”

Swail Ertel is the nicest, friendliest, classic Californian you’ll ever meet, Harper also said. “But as soon as sports come out, watch out,” he warned. “You don’t mess with the gal; she’s playing all out to win.” Swail Ertel is gifted with amazing fortitude, Harper added. She was one of only two players to ever captain the women’s water polo team three times here on campus. During her time at UCSD, her team won two national championships. “She’s certainly one of the best players I ever had,” said Harper, who now coaches UCSD’s men’s water polo team.

Swail Ertel in turn says that Harper was the best coach she ever had. He taught her to find her passion and pursue it, she said. “He is firm and hard but he’s also very playful,” she added. “He’s not afraid to be a real person in front of his athletes.”

The triathlete’s competitive instincts might come from her high school years, when she was the only girl on an all-male water polo team. She wanted to play and the coach agreed to let her try out. A few senior boys were upset that she made the varsity team as a junior while they hadn’t, she recalls. But mostly, she remembers her teammates treating her like a little sister. “I just wanted to play,” she said.