By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
For the first time, an Alaskan swimmer is headed to the Olympics, where she will compete in the 100 meter breaststroke race for Team USA.
Lydia Jacoby of Seward set a new national age group record for the 100 breaststroke in the U.S. Olympic Trials swim meet in June, and placed second in the event overall. She was just one second behind Lilly King, the current world record holder in the event. Both King and Jacoby will represent the United States in the Olympic Games in Japan later this month.
Jacoby is only 17 years old.
For her longtime coach, Solomon D’Amico, the June 15 Olympic trials race in Omaha was surreal.
“I could tell she was even with Annie (Lazor) and she was gaining on her and getting ahead of her. That moment of recognition was kind of otherworldly, really, really special,” D’Amico said over the phone. “It’s just all six and half, seven years of work and it’s all coming through in that ultimate moment; it was surreal.”
Jacoby touched the wall in 1:05.28 to clinch the Olympic berth. The new age group record she broke was the 1:05.71 she swam in the semifinal the previous night. Lilly King, the current world record holder in the women’s 100 meter breaststroke, finished the final race in 1:04.79, with Annie Lazor a hair behind in third place at 1:05.60.
“I’m so honored to be able to represent my state in a meet like this, and I’m so excited to now be able to represent my country as well,” Jacoby said in a press conference after the Omaha meet.
Seward Tsunamis’ star swimmer Lydia Jacoby poses for a shot at a swim meet in Mission Viejo, Calif., in April. Jacoby will represent Alaska and the United States in the Tokyo Olympics. (Photo provided by Leslie Jacoby)
She will be the first ever Alaskan to swim in the Olympics, and was honored on the floor of the U.S. Senate when Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan named her “Alaskan of the Week.”
After coaching Jacoby for most of a decade, D’Amico was proud to work with her.
“It has been an honor knowing and working with her day after day. She’s a joy to be around, because she’s extremely coachable, bright, and hard working,” he said.
D’Amico didn’t coach Jacoby alone. Seward coach Meghan O’Leary has also worked with the Olympian, as has Northern Lights Swim Club coach Ben Kitchen.
Originally scheduled for the summer of 2020, the Tokyo Olympics were pushed to 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Seward Tsunamis were in Seattle for a meet last year when the lockdowns began, but the coach said the pandemic had an unexpected positive effect for the team – it added one more year of training. Though young for the Olympics, Jacoby is the oldest swimmer on the Tsunamis.
“That (COVID) was definitely kind of a shock to the world and our little team, our crew as well,” D’Amico said. “They were actually down in Seattle, ground zero for the U.S. outbreak… for the sectional meet, a bigger out-of-state meet, and it got canceled so they had to fly back. Even then we were meeting with them and discussing how this really plays into our favor... We were going to do everything we could to make it that summer but we knew it wasn’t likely. But then that was a really big, bright takeaway from a little bit of a disappointment.”
While in-person training wasn’t always possible during the pandemic, D’Amico said Jacoby found ways to carry on.
“We weren’t able to work with the kids face-to-face for a bit there, so we had to do some online documentation of her training, and that kind of really helped the process too, because she would put in the exercises, along with her subjective feedback, which allowed us to fine-tune our approach,” he said. Jacoby also trained for a time in Anchorage during the pandemic.
Jacoby isn’t a one-sport athlete either, which further increases her overall athletic abilities, her coach said.
“For sure, down in Seward we like to emphasize quality. Having a lot more investment in the weight room,” he said. “We invest in other sports, track, she did track again this spring. What that does is it really kind of enables that motor control and that neural drive and neuromuscular connectivity… it sort of puts that all together and brings everything to another level.”
D’Amico said he works off of Team USA’s Path to Excellence. That document indicates that most American Olympians were multi-sport athletes through their high school years.
The coach stressed the need for variability in training.
“You’ve got to vary it up, you just tell a kid to get down there and swim a million yards… they’re not going to get that same neural drive and neuromuscular connectivity and enhancement that carries over through multiple sports in figuring out your body and what it can do,” he said.
While he noted Jacoby’s natural talent, he highlighted the role of hard and smart work.
“Not just that she’s worked hard, she’s worked smart. We really encourage our kids in Seward to get a grasp on their biofeedback,” he said. For D’Amico, overstressing natural talents can do a disservice to the tremendous amount of work done by high-performing athletes like Jacoby.
A healthy approach to training, the coach said, is crucial.
“You’re not looking to hit some obscure quantity just to hit that number. We encourage them and even applaud them if they’re not having a good practice, something’s not feeling right, get out of the water, call it a day,” D’Amico said. “That’s good. I think that’s a really healthy, wholesome approach to developing athleticism.”
Jacoby presently is in Hawaii, training with Team USA before heading to Japan to compete later this month. The women’s 100 meter breaststroke preliminary race will be July 25, and the semifinal race is scheduled July 26. The final event is set for July 27. Depending on her performance, Jacoby might earn a spot on the U.S. women’s 400 meter medley relay team as well.
