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Princeton Swimming Co-Captain Valdivieso Aims for Wins at Easterns on Way to Athens
By Bill Alden
As Juan Valdivieso swam in the 2000 Olympics for Peru prior to matriculating to Princeton, he considered putting swimming on the backburner once he got to college.
Feeling that he had hit the pinnacle of his sport by making it to the Sydney Games, Valdivieso, a dual citizen of Peru and the U.S. who grew up in Bethesda, Md., contemplated branching out and playing other sports in college.
But once Valdivieso arrived at Princeton, he found a home with the Tiger swimming program. His times went down and he developed deep friendships with his team members.
In the intervening four years, Valdivieso has put together one of the greatest careers in recent Princeton history, ranking second all-time at Princeton in the 200 butterfly, third in the 1000 freestyle, and sixth in the 500 free.
In addition, the affable Valdivieso earned the respect and affection of his teammates as he has twice won the program's Dermod Quinn Award for "intense determination and effort in workouts" and was voted as one of the team's co-captains this season.
This weekend, Valdivieso is looking to write another chapter in his storied Princeton career as he looks to lead the Tigers to the championship in the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL) championships to be held at DeNunzio Pool from March 4-6.
The 6'3, 170-pound Valdivieso is just as stoked to swim for Princeton as he is when swimming in international competitions for Peru.
"It's an honor everytime you put on the orange and black, you're representing 100 years of Princeton swimming," said Valdivieso. "It would be great to end my college career by winning both the Harvard-Yale-Princeton (H-Y-P) and the Easterns in the same year. We haven't done that since I've been here and it would be great to end with the double victory."
Valdivieso, though, makes it clear that the Olympics is in his blood. "My grandfather was an Olympian, he was a goalie for the Peruvian soccer team in the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936," said Valdivieso, whose parents moved to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies and then landed jobs in Washington, D.C. with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
"The Olympics has always been a part of my family. I watched them as a kid, any Olympics, winter or summer. So it was always a dream for me."
Valdivieso, who has been swimming competitively since age 5, got involved with the Peruvian National Team when he was 14 and represented the country in the South American swimming championships. Following in the footsteps of his older sister, he was accepted to Princeton in 1999 but deferred admission after making the Peruvian team for the 2000 games where he swam in the 200 fly.
"Just being part of the the swimming competition at Sydney was an amazing experience," recalled Valdivieso, who was eliminated at the preliminary stage of the competition. "Swimming was really a hallmark event of those games, getting off at the airport you saw all these billboards with Australian swimmers. It was a great experience."
For Princeton men's swimming coach Rob Orr, having Valdivieso in his program has been a great experience. "If a coach was to describe the ideal athlete, you could just put Juan's name there," asserted Orr, of his star who has excelled in the classroom having made the Academic All-American team the last three years and been a Rhodes Scholar semifinalist. "He has a sense of humor. He is a hard trainer. His work ethic, communication skills, and loyalty to the team set him apart."
Orr is expecting big things of Valdivieso this weekend and beyond. "He's quite capable of winning all three of his individual races," said Orr. "He will have some various battles in several of the races. As soon as he takes his energy and channels it into the real world, you watch out. His work ethic in the pool will carry him into life."
Valdivieso is viewing the Athens Olympics as his last swimming competition before heading into the real world.
"I'm approaching it as if this is it," said Valdivieso, a student in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs who plans to travel after the games, do some charity work, and ultimately go to law school.
"I was almost overwhelmed by the Olympic experience at the time in 2000. I've gone to many more international meets since then. I know that if I do well, I have a chance to make it to the semifinals."
If his swimming career ends in Athens, Valdivieso will miss the daily regimen he has followed the last 18 years. "It comes natural to me because I love the sport," said Valdivieso with a smile. "It's not really a task or a burden. It's something I love doing. I hate missing practices, not because I feel I have to win the attendance award but because I love being there."
The Princeton swimming program has certainly loved having Valdivieso in the fold these last four years.
