LIHU’E-Renate duPlessis sat quietly on a starting block at the Kaua’i High School pool while waiting for her next race, seemingly oblivious to the squealing and splashing all around her of Mokihana Aquatics swimmers during a break in their meet
LIHU’E-Renate duPlessis sat quietly on a starting block at the Kaua’i High
School pool while waiting for her next race, seemingly oblivious to the
squealing and splashing all around her of Mokihana Aquatics swimmers during a
break in their meet last Saturday.
But duPlessis knew full well what might
be going through their minds: How could they someday reach the competitive
level of her, an Olympic swimmer?
The way to get there is to work for it,
said duPlessis, who will compete for her native South Africa in the Olympics
next month in Australia.
“Training is hard, but hang in there,” she said
would be her advice to aspiring Olympians. “Nothing worth doing is
easy.”
For duPlessis, who swam her first race as a first-grader and
Saturday was one of five Olympic qualifiers , training is fun, not work. “I
look forward to it,” she said of her schedule of two workouts a day (except
Wednesdays and Saturdays, when she cuts back to one, and Sundays, her day
off).
The payoff for her is a trip to Sydney, where she’ll compete in the
100-meter butterfly and, she hopes, on her country’s 4×100 individual medley
relay team.
She sees herself maybe reaching the semifinals in the
butterfly but doesn’t expect to win a medal. “It’s such a competitive event,”
she said.
The relay could be a different story, though. “We have a really
good team. We have a chance to finish third” and win a bronze medal, duPlessis
said.
She easily won the 100 butterfly in the Mokihana meet. Joining her in
the meet were fellow Olympians Nick Folker, Leslie Kwok, Simon Trisk and Matt
Kwok. All five are members of the Baywatch Hawai’i club team.
Folker, who
blistered the field in the mens’ 100-meter freestyle, and Trisk are also South
African teammates with duPlessis. Matt Kwok and Leslie Kwok, who are not
related, will compete down under for Hong Kong and Singapore,
respectively.
A University of Hawai’i freshman, duPlessis hails from Cape
Town, “where the oceans come together,” she said with a smile. She’s studying
exercise physiology and plans to enter medical school.
But first she’ll try
to quench her competitive thirst. She slaked it partially by qualifying for the
Olympics this year after missing by nine-tenths of a second in 1996. The
near-miss made her “more determined to make it this time,” she said.
On her
odometer of accomplishments, earning an Olympic berth is about a tossup with
her victory in the South African nationals in 1997, she said.
She doesn’t
consider herself a national hero, either for that feat or her ticket to Sydney.
She is, she said, just a proud Olympian.
“It’s a real honor,” she
said.
