Rick Shipherd's nearly five-decade coaching career includes stops from San Diego to El Monte and has produced two Olympians, a handful of Olympic trials swimmers and college standouts at powerhouses like Florida and Stanford.
Parents hunt for coffee on the pool deck while kids unwrap themselves from blankets to plunge into heated pools. The sun won’t rise for another two hours, but the area’s top swimmers are wide awake for one of the biggest swim meets in Southern California.
Coach Rick Shipherd leads a workout with swimmers of La Mirada Armada, a year-round swim club, on a cold and rainy day at Splash! Aquatics Complex. Not all of them walked into his office with natural talent. Real talent — the kind that Olympic gold medalists are simply born with — is rare. No one in his current group has it, he says bluntly.La Mirada Armada swimmers Clemence Choy, Chantee Nguyen, and Kayla Han, from left, take turns lifting weights at a UFC Gym in La Mirada.
“[Shipherd] always said, ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re the fastest person in the pool or the slowest person in the pool,’” Ault said. “‘You finished the set.’” The breaststroke specialist worked hard at practice at her old club, but it just felt like she was going through the motions. Teammates tore each other down in practice. The negativity showed in her racing, where she commonly fell apart mentally down the final stretch.
While watching his swimmers pace back and forth in the pool, Shipherd estimated about four of the 11 who started the day would survive the entire workout. In the end, eight lasted until the celebratory group photo.
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