Swimming Jews In The Fast Lane

Garret Weber-Gale, top left, Ben Wildman-Tobriner, above, and Jason Lezak.

by Marc Brodsky/JTA

Three Jewish sprinters — Jason Lezak, Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Garrett Weber-Gale — are hoping to make a splash as part of the U.S. men’s swimming team heading to Beijing. Not only will they be competing as individuals, but they also are expected to make up three-fourths of the 4x100-meter freestyle relay team.

“We joke about going to the Maccabiah Games and setting a world record,” Lezak tells JTA, referring to what is known as “the Jewish Olympics.”

The three swimmers, along with Dara Torres, are among the seven Jewish athletes believed to form the American Jewish contingent headed to China. They are a mix of veterans and newcomers, all with a realistic chance of acquiring medals at the Games.
Already, Wildman-Tobriner and Weber-Gale have their nickname: the “hyphenated Jew crew.” That makes for some good-natured fun around the pool, Wildman-Tobriner says, adding that he is proud to represent his heritage — along with the United States — in China.

Lezak, of Irvine, Calif., is competing in his third Olympics and has garnered four medals on relay teams, including a gold in the 4x100 medley in ’04. At 32, he is the oldest male to qualify for an Olympic swim team.

At the recent U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha, Neb., the 6-foot-4, 215-pounder broke the American record in the 100-meter freestyle with a semifinal time of 47.58, setting himself up as the probable anchor on that relay team.

“Winning medals in the relays is such an amazing feeling, being a part of a team,” Lezak told JTA.

In part, it was his disappointment as an individual competitor in Athens that spurred Lezak to keep his Olympic dreams. He failed to qualify for the finals in the 100-meter freestyle, though Lezak says he had a “great opportunity” to win an individual medal.
“I took the preliminaries too lightly,” he admits. “I learned a horrible lesson, but it kind of got me going another four years. I kind of felt like I had unfinished business.”
He’ll have plenty of competition from Weber-Gale, of Milwaukee, and Wildman-Tobriner, a fellow Californian. Weber-Gale, 22, edged Lezak in the 100-meter finals in the trials.

Weber-Gale, who won the World Championships in 2005 and 2007, will be making his Olympics debut after narrowly missing a spot four years ago. He expects to compete in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle and on the 4x100 freestyle and medley teams.
The University of Texas All-American predicts an outstanding Olympics for the U.S. squad. “I think this is the best Olympic swim team ever assembled,” Weber-Gale told the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.

Wildman-Tobriner, 23, also is making his Olympic debut. The Stanford University All-American will compete in the 50-meter freestyle and the relay.
“To finally be able to participate is going to be really exciting,” he told J., the Jewish news weekly of Northern California. “It still hasn’t really sunk in yet.”
Lezak, who has been coaching himself the last two years, says he met his younger Jewish colleagues at the ’05 World Championships. “They were in a different stage of their lives,” he says. “They were in college, and the international scene was more important to me.”

Lezak says they mostly talk to each other about their common Jewish identity. “You don’t see that too often,” he says of three Jewish Olympians in the same events. “They’re both nice guys and we all get along.”

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization