Wilkens brings Olympic spirit to Mid'town library
Bronze medalist learned to swim at twp. swim club and Red Bank YMCA
BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY JAMIE ROMM The Bronze Medal Tom Wilkens won at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games was on display at the Middletown Township Public Library Aug. 6. Wilkens, who was captain of the USA Men's Swim Team, recounted his experiences at the games.

MIDDLETOWN — Residents didn't have to turn on their TV sets to see an Olympic bronze medalist last week, they just had to show up at the library.

Former USA swim team captain Tom Wilkens gave a talk about the experience of competing in the 2000 Summer Olympic Games held in Sydney, Australia.

Wilkens, who is also a township committeeman, regaled his audience with "Stories from the Olympics" at the Middletown Township Public Library on Aug. 6 as part of the library's effort to bring the Olympics to the residents of Middletown.

The library has caught the Olympic spirit and has invited patrons to watch the games on the big-screen TV at the rear of the library, and is presenting a program of Olympics-related events that includes talks, movies and an art exhibit.

No one was more excited about his talk than Wilkens himself.

"This whole thing for me actually was really rewarding," Wilkens said. "I have all this memorabilia collected in different areas in my house and my parents' house. It was the first time I've gotten to sit down in a long time and go through all of these things. It was very memorable, emotional and exciting for me.

"Thank you for giving me the opportunity to go through all of this stuff."

Wilkens won the Bronze Medal in the 200-meter individual medley. Displayed on the wall in the library's public meeting room is his memorabilia from the 2000 Olympics.

Wilkens' Bronze Medal was on display in the center of a table, surrounded by the many outfits he wore throughout the event, including the warm-up suits he wore during opening ceremonies and when he received his medal.

He also had newspaper clippings, photos and something that he said no other township committeeman has.

"They gave me the key to the city when I came back," Wilkens said. "One night I'm going to try it out at town hall and see if I can get in."

The comment drew laughter and applause from the more than 40 people in attendance.

Wilkens is a motivational speaker and is employed as an underwriting analyst for American International Insurance Group, Berkeley Heights.

He said he is constantly asked what was the most important thing he took away from the Olympics, and he said it's not what people might expect.

"Sure, I got to live out my dream, my lifelong goal of being an Olympian, but there are two things that I feel are the greatest things to happen because of the Olympics," Wilkens said. "The first is that it is indirectly how I met my wife."

He said that when he returned home from Sydney, everyone in Middletown wanted to congratulate him and hear about his experience.

"I really didn't know how big a deal this was to Middletown until I came back and received all of these phone calls and letters," Wilkens said, adding that he was invited to speak at township schools, and his wife happened to be a student teacher at Middletown Village School at that time.

"We started talking, and I came back a few weeks later and asked her out, and there you go. If I hadn't made the Olympic team and won a medal, I probably never would have had the chance to go around to all of these schools and never would have met my wife. Thank you, Olympics, for that."

The other result of his Olympic victory was being invited to the White House to meet the president, and when he got there he had another surprise.

"I was a Stanford [University] graduate, and another girl on my team also was a Stanford graduate, and we had a friend who was sort of influential at the White House," Wilkens said. "After I shook President [Bill] Clinton's hand, the other Stanford grad and I were stopped by Secret Service agents."

The agents handed them a letter, which he showed to the audience that read:

"Tom, welcome to the White House, it would be my pleasure to have you stay for dinner and to spend the night. Tomorrow I am going house-hunting with my mom, but we will be back in the evening. Of course feel no obligation, but also please be sure that having you in my home would be a joy."

The letter was signed by another Stanford grad, Chelsea Clinton.

"Chelsea was a friend of mine from Stanford," said Wilkens, who took the president's daughter up on her offer and stayed an extra day.

Wilkens said that through all of his experiences, Middletown has always been close to his heart.

"When I was over in Sydney, I really didn't want to let anyone here down, because it meant a lot to the people back home as much as it did to me," Wilkens said. "On the medal stand, I wore a T-shirt that said Middletown, New Jersey, USA under my outfit. Middletown was on my chest when they put the medal on my neck."

Wilkens said he learned how to swim at the Middletown Swim Club and at the Red Bank YMCA.

He said he was on the Middletown swim team from the time he was 6 until he was in high school.

"I lifeguarded at the YMCA; it's where I swam, it's where I worked, it's where I lived during the summertime," Wilkens said. "I have a lot of memories of that."

He went on to swim at Christian Brothers Academy, Lincroft, then went off to Stanford.

"For me, I always had the dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer but never really thought much about it," Wilkens said. "I was always focused on what was in front of me.

"When I was at the Red Bank Y, I wanted to be the best on that team. Then in high school, the best in my county, then the best in the state."

He said he grew up as a skinny little kid with braces and big glasses.

"Even today I'm not super physically tall or the strongest person out there," Wilkens said. "When you watch the guys at the Olympics, you see these monsters and physical specimens, and I was in great shape ... but it shows that you don't have to be the most physically gifted person in the Olympics to be the most successful. If you have a great support network and people around you, you will succeed."

Wilkens said he had a challenge as a swimmer that many in the world of swimming find funny: He is allergic to chlorine.

To avoid getting sick every year with bronchitis, he started to wear a nose clip to keep the water out of his nose. In college, he said, the rest of the team resorted to wearing nose clips as well, for all of the wrong reasons.

"They said that they were wearing the nose clips because Tom was and he was doing well," Wilkens said. "Here I am wearing it to not get sick and they think it'll help them swim faster."

He said that in 1999, he was the top-ranked swimmer in the world and wasn't just thinking about being on the Olympic team, he was thinking about winning a gold medal, breaking a world record and getting his picture on the front of a Wheaties box.

"I had a contract with General Mills," Wilkens said. "If I had won a bunch of gold medals, I would have been one of the people they put on the Wheaties box."

He said that he was one of the favorites to compete in three events at the Olympics.

"I went into the Olympic trials in phenomenal shape, and my first event at the Olympic trials was the 400- meter individual medley, the event I would later go on to break the American record in at the World Championships," Wilkens said. "But in 2000, I went in ranked No. 1 in the world, and my picture was on the cover of the program for the Olympic trials, so a lot was expected of me."

He ended up finishing third in the event and not qualifying to compete in the event at the Olympics.

He competed in the breast stroke and the 200-meter individual medley, for which he won the Bronze Medal.

Wilkens recalled that as captain of the swim team, he stood behind the flag holder at the opening ceremonies at the Olympic Games.

"I wanted to be with my teammates, but as captain I had to be up in the front," Wilkens said. "Walking out into the packed arena was a complete thrill."

Asked if he felt pressure to win, he said that competing is something he does naturally and he just focused on his goal.

"You are told that 75 percent of the world is watching you at the Olympics," Wilkens said. "That's pressure enough going into the event. I tried to just focus on myself."

He said that when competing in a race you just have to swim and give everything you have.

"You have two minutes of swimming yourself to pain," Wilkens said. "You swim so hard it hurts."

He said that when the moment came and he was one of the medalists standing in front of the crowd, he saw the United States flag being lifted in the air and it was an experience like no other.

"You are standing there with your country's flag being raised," Wilkens said. "What could be better than that?"

Wilkens told the children in attendance who were wearing Middletown Swim Club T-shirts that it is important to keep swimming, and since he got back in the pool recently after knee surgery, it brought back some great memories.

"It's important to have a great attitude and enjoy what you do," Wilkens said. "I just starting swimming again and remembered how much fun I had."