Tough coach pushes tenacious swimmer

By Ray Pitz

The Sherwood Gazette, Feb 22, 2010

When Alice Luo met Sherwood Family YMCA swim Coach Mark Maxwell at the 2004 U.S. Paralympic tryouts in Minneapolis, she was immediately struck by his kindness and the unique way he trained his athletes.

In fact, she liked his coaching style so much that Luo visited Sherwood two years later, spending a couple of weeks training with him. She returned on a permanent basis in 2008 just before the Paralympic games in Beijing.

“He’s a very good coach, (an) awesome coach,” said Luo.

Still, for the 42-year-old Luo, who was a competivie swimmer in Taiwan before being paralyzed from the chest down in a freak accident, wished she had been in better shape for Beijing.

“I did really well in Beijing based on (my) short training period,” she said. The Paralympic games are open to athletes with physical disabilities like Luo suffered in 2002.

By his own admission, Maxwell is known for pushing athletes to their limits, challenging them to do their very best.

“We don’t waste a lot of time,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell has been a swim coach since 1977 and has been at the Sherwood YMCA since it opened in 1998. The head swim coach for the Sherwood Family YMCA’s YAWAMA program, he’s worked with disabled swimmers since 1986.

In 1996 and 2000, he was the head swim coach for the U.S. Paralympic Swim Team. In addition to Luo, he help train Aaron Paulson, the former YMCA Teen Center Director who has been to five Paralympic games.

Most days, Luo can be found at the Sherwood Family YMCA, training with the YAWAMA Swim Team, a group of 80 swimmers ranging in age from 6 to 42. She trains up to eight times a week as long as two hours each day.

Luo recalled that she only had a had only a very small window of time to get into shape for the Beijing Paralympics where she represented Chinese Tai Pai. Paralympians normally compete four to eight weeks after world Olympic competition, using the same facilities as the athletes at the main games.

Maxwell served as head coach for the Taiwanese team in Beijing

Although Maxwell told her to take a little time off following those games she took a little longer then she should have and wasn’t in the shape she had hoped to be in for her next challenge.

Success comes again

“We decided going into the finals, there was nothing she could lose,” said Maxwell. “The experience gave her a leg up on what she can and can’t do.”

Buoyed by her success, Luo traveled to Rio de Janeiro only three months ago to compete in the IPC World Championships representing her home country of Taiwan.

Everything in Rio was hot, including the pool water, which was uncomfortable to swim in.

Warm water or no, Luo took home a gold medal, setting a new world Paralympic record in the 200-meter Individual Medley. She clocked her best time as well: 4 minutes, 15 seconds.

“She stayed stroke to stroke with the gold medalist from Beijing until the last 10 to 15 yards,” Maxwell pointed out.

Although Maxwell wasn’t there to see her win the medal — he had another engagement with Sherwood YMCA swimmers — Luo said she knew that he would have been proud to see her going all the way against the top eight swimmers from around the world.

While pleased with Luo winning the gold medal, Maxwell said it was the fact she shaved seconds from her time that made him happiest.

“(The) world record was extra,” he said.

In addition to placing first in the 200 meter individual medley in Rio, Luo won a silver medal in the 100-meter breast stroke and placed fifth in the 50-meter freestyle.

Showing her support for her home team, Luo wore her Sherwood YAWAMA Dragons Swim Team cap under her official competitive cap.

Accident is setback

only for awhile

The freak accident that injured Luo eight years ago is something she defers to Coach Maxwell to explain.

Luo and her boyfriend were in Atlanta getting ready to move. As they packed items into a rented truck, the brake and transmission in the vehicle gave way.

“She was hit by a moving truck, pinned against the sidewalk,” Maxwell said. “As she was trying to get away, it jumped and caught her.”

The result was she was paralyzed from the chest down. While she can stand and walk with assistance, she can’t balance well or kick her legs in the pool.

Luo’s initial reaction after the accident was that she didn’t want to swim again. When she finally did get back into the water: “I cried all the time,” she recalled, referring to the emotional response of trying to get back into the sport she had loved all her life.

“I basically grew up by the swimming pool,” said Luo, who is no stranger to intense athletic competition having been on the Taiwanese National Swim Team before her accident.

A half year after the accident, she started training again but it wasn’t until the Beijing Paralympics that she knew she could once again compete.

In addition to Beijing and Rio de Janeiro, Maxwell said she did well previously in the 2006 Asian Games and later in the world championships held in South Africa. Maxwell recalled that the South African trip was important.

“At that point, I think she realized she was competitive,” he said, adding that she returned “with a new attitude.”

Looking ahead

She was no longer embarrassed to get into the water. She had goals. She had a plan.

“The fruition of that was Beijing where she placed top six in the world,” he said.

He said Paralympic athletes often find it difficult when they initially compete or return to competition, saying it’s a whole new world for them. He said athletes need about 2 1/2 years to train for the Paralympics.

Next, she’ll compete in the World Championships in the Netherlands this August and will travel to the Asian Games in December. She is planning to compete in the 2012 Paralympics set for London as well.

“That’s the next goal for us,” said Maxwell.