To kick the 07-08 season off to an inspired start, Cayman Swimming (CIASA) is bringing American Olympian Rada Owen here for a week, Sept 10-17th.
Invited at the behest of Coach Dominic Ross, Ms Owen will work with local swimmers at the Lions Pool for several hours several days and at the PDL 800 metre Sea Swim on Saturday afternoon, Sept 15th.
An excellent choice to help work with stroke technique, Owen, was long known for her ‘flawless technique’ while a competitor, and has since been instrumental in developing drills to help other swimmers.
As a child in Virginia, Owen started swimming after she was in a cast, used swimming as her form of therapy. Her story is an inspiration to all young swimmers. Her illustrious career included being a state of Virginia champion, on to Auburn University and the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Along the way Owen competed and placed in numerous international and national championships. She was ranked and placed in the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle in multiple world events, earned gold at the World University (1999) Games in the 800m free, earned the ‘All-American’ title all four years at Auburn while a Dean’s list student.
After watching underwater videotape of her, Auburn University coaches decided to encourage the other Auburn swimmers to emulate her “flawless” freestyle technique. A drill “Swim Like Rada,” commercially available, helps the other swimmers to visualize and execute a proper freestyle stroke. That innovative freestyle drill helped to propel the Auburn University women’s team to the NCAA title in 2002.
Owen currently lives in Los Angeles. She teaches swimming, trains tri-athletes, and runs stroke clinics for age group swimmers to pay the bills, while pursuing her dream of developing a television show. Until the script sells, she is either at her computer writing, or on a pool deck.
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