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 (Photo courtesy of Princeton's Office of Athletic Communications) caption:
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Princeton's Valdivieso Comes Full Circle By Making it Back to Summer Olympics
Bill Alden
Before matriculating to Princeton University in the fall of 2000, Juan Valdivieso took care of some business in Australia as he swam for Peru in the Sydney Summer Olympics.
Next week, Valdivieso's swimming career will come full circle when he competes for Peru at the Athens Games in what will likely be the last swimming competition of his life.
The dual citizen of Peru and the U.S., who grew up in Bethesda, Md. and graduated from Princeton this past June, has long envisioned that his college swimming career would have such a symmetry.
"I had always wanted to start and end my college experience with an Olympic Games," said Valdivieso, who helped lead the Tigers to the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL) championship last winter, the program's second EISL title in the last three years. "I had always wanted my last swim to be at the Olympics. It is a great honor and opportunity."
Acknowledging that he was a bit overwhelmed in Sydney, Valdivieso believes that he will be better able to tune out the distractions that come with the Olympics when he hits the water in Athens.
"In Sydney I was in awe of the spectacle," said Valdivieso, who has qualified to swim the 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly events in Athens. "This time around, I feel like it's just like any other swim meet. It definitely helps to go to Athens knowing more or less what to expect in terms of the Olympic Village, the competition venue, and the crowds."
In order to put less pressure on himself this time around, Valdivieso decided not to make swimming his sole focus in the year leading up the Games.
"Before Sydney I took a whole year to train and then I had a month-long training camp before my race," explained Valdivieso, who was eliminated in the 200 fly in the preliminary rounds of the 2000 competition.
"The result, in terms of my swimming, was disappointing. I decided this time around that I would do what had worked so well the last four years ‹ stay relaxed and stay happy. I came to the conclusion that the training camp for 2000 made me more nervous and kept me away from my family and friends."
While the genial Valdivieso may be taking a more balanced approach in his Olympic build-up, that doesn't mean that he hasn't put in countless hours in the pool and weightroom.
"At the peak of my training in June, I was swimming 10 sessions a week of 2.5 hours and doing three weightlifting sessions a week," explained the 6'3, 170-pound Valdivieso, who has been training this summer in Washington D.C. with his longtime club team, Curl-Burke. "I was averaging between 75,000 and 90,000 meters of swimming a week."
With that kind of training and the experience of one Olympics under his belt, Valdivieso has high hopes coming into Athens.
"In Sydney, making the semifinals was quite a long shot, this time around it's a realistic goal," maintained Valdivieso, who recently finished fifth in the U.S. Nationals in the 200 fly and has a personal best of 1:59.87 in that event.
"I have to have my best performance in the heats in order to qualify for the semifinals but competing in events such as the Pan Pacific Championships 2002 and the World Championships in 2003 has helped me gain experience in highly competitive international competitions."
For Valdivieso, competing at the international level in athletics runs in the family as his grandfather, Juan Valdivieso, was a goalkeeper for Peru's national soccer team in the 1930 World Cup and the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
"Growing up I was always inspired by his athletic success and looking at all of his pictures from those days inspired me to be an Olympian too," recalled Valdivieso, who is ranked in the top ten all-time at Princeton in the 200 fly, the 1000 freestyle, and the 500 free. "His role in Peruvian athletics was probably the major factor behind my choice to also represent Peru."
When Valdivieso settles into the starting block at the Athens pool, he will also be representing Princeton. "I know that everything I do, especially in the athletic arena, reflects on Princeton," added Valdivieso, an Academic All-American who studied Public and International Affairs at Princeton and plans to go to law school or grad school in public policy and public administration.
"In that respect, I hope that my performance can make my Princeton family proud and bring international exposure to the swim program. Being at Princeton was like being at the Olympics everyday. All of my classmates were interesting and impressive in their own way so that taught me to be humble. The pride and joy I felt upon graduating will carry over into my excitement for the Games."
Valdivieso has certainly been a major source of pride over the last four years for both Peru and Princeton.
