Swimming Lessons

This is the story of a lie that got me into some hot water. And I’ll also introduce you to a swimmer whose first time in an Olympic-sized swimming pool was… at the Olympics.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Today's story is about swimming, an Olympic hopeful and the
sort of courage it takes to take all your fears.
It's also about me your host a pump Care, but
mostly it's about making you smile. Welcome to an pump Cares.
Chapter three, Swim Lessons. Back when I was a young actor,

(00:35):
still looking for my first big role, I met than
Weed Ahmad. Than We was a director, knew on the scene,
and he liked my work. We got along immediately. Our
conversation was easy, and it wasn't long before he told
me I would like to cast you as the villain
in my film. Did I hear that right? The villain.

(01:00):
I can't tell you how overjoyed I was a lead role,
something I could sink my teeth into. And then, ever
so casually, he added, so I'm sure you know how
to swim. Swimming isn't something I grew up with. We
had no points near my home, no money for swim lessons.

(01:22):
Swimming wasn't part of my world. But here was everything.
I dreamt of a big role with the new director.
I just couldn't turn down the opportunity. The shooting was
in three months. I got to myself in three months,
I can learn to swim. And then I did what
I do best. I acted. I said, yes, of course

(01:47):
I know swimming. I'm very good swimming. How much leaky
than I are? And in my enthusiasm I improvised. I
kept going on and on about how much I love
to swim. Oh, yes, I feel so at home the water.
Sometimes I think I am part of fishing. I stopped
just short of declaring myself a champion swimmer. And of course,

(02:10):
then Weird was thrilled. When I left the meeting, I
had a plan. I had it straight for King's Hotel,
a cheap little hotel in jew where they had been
swimming pool and offered swim lessons. Unfortunately, the trainer there
was basically an exaggerated version of me. He said, yeah, yeah, cool.

(02:36):
In five days, you will be an expert. Anybody who
has come to me has become a champion. Then he said,
oh ya, are you ready? I said, hun, I'm ready,
ready to swim under your leadership, Sir. He said, are
you sure? I said yes, sir, of course, of course.
I was an eager student, ready to learn. And then

(02:58):
he pushed me into the water, or I should say
he threw me into the water. What happened next was
not pretty. I started sinking, I started screaming. But this, this,
this did not feel like a typical swim lesson. I'm

(03:19):
not sure how exactly he pulled me out, because it
wasn't by my hair, But when my feet were back
on solid ground and the water was out of my
eyes and my nose, well, I gave him one tight
slap on the face. Maybe that wasn't the right reaction,

(03:39):
but throwing a twenty seven year old man into the
water without any warning was not my idea of learning
how to swim. He said, yeah, metal those that is
why I teach. Yeah, and I are scared of order
are you need to get the fear of water out

(04:01):
of your system. But instead the opposite happened. I was
more afraid than ever. Over the next few months, I
did try to learn. I joined a different swimming club,
I spent time in the kiddy pool, but that fear
of waters stayed with me. I thought, maybe if the

(04:21):
shooting begins, we will do all the scenes on the
land and then they will just have to use a
body double for the swim scenes. That is what I
was hoping when I finally got a call from Tanim's assistant.
I was unprepared. He said, okay, so tomorrow morning we
will shoot at Sea Rock Hotel swimming pool at nine am.

(04:44):
I said, swimming swimming swimming pool? Do we need swimming pool?
The assistant said, maybe we are doing your first shot
where you are in the water, deep water, deep water,
hitting the I almost lost my balance. I went cockpite
with fear, and he kept describing it to me. They

(05:05):
will be two or three pretty girls swimming. We will
shoot it from the top angle, and then suddenly, in
slow motion, you will emerge in the middle of the
bottom and laugh like your villain. I thought to myself,
Oh my god, oh my god, my word, what do
I do? When I showed up the next day, I
was given a brilliant rope and very nice swimming trunks,

(05:28):
but type won't hide my nerves. And then he saw me.
He said, what's what's wrong with you? You're not looking confident.
You should be the happiest man on earth today, my friend.
I said, hey, my voice was not coming out, and
he said, so, how do you like the opening shot
of the villain? I said, I like it very much,
but can we please do it in the shallow wind.

(05:49):
A shallow wind. Suddenly don't change. What do you mean,
can we do it in the shallow and I said
because I because I think I'll come out of it
more confidently. He said, no, I have conceived a shot
in deep water and then you come out of it.
I said, can my body double do that shot? And

(06:13):
he suddenly turned cold and he said, so you don't
know swimming now. I won't go into the details, but
it was not a great day for me. I was
unceremoniously kicked off the set. I was replaced with ambrished Boodie,
who was the villain in the Indiana Jones films later.

(06:36):
At the time, it felt like the biggest disaster of
my life. As you can probably tell, I learned from
the experience and things eventually worked out for me. But
the reason I'm telling you this is because two years
ago I decided to face my biggest fear. When I
came to New York. I decided to do all the

(06:58):
things I would have never and before and started taking
swimming lessons, this time with the real instructor. I'm still
on a champion swimmer, but I can swim a little.
I am no longer afraid of water, sou than We.
If you're listening and you have a role for the

(07:20):
beginning Swimmer, call me. I'm almost ready. I think about
two things that experience has taught me over the years. One,
it's truly never too late to learn. It took me
thirty some years to get back into a wood and
try again, but now I love being in the water.

(07:43):
And Two, I have never fipped to a director since
than We'd thank you for throwing me out of the
film because it made me a better collaborator, a better person,
and I mean that genuinely. But speaking of not knowing

(08:08):
how to swim, I want to tell you the most wonderful,
heartwarming story of another young man who couldn't swim. The
story of Eric Mussambani. Eric Mussambani came from Equatorial Guinea,
a tiny nation in West Africa, and just before the

(08:28):
Summer Olympic Games in two thousands, he qualified to compete
in the hundred meter freestyle. They were just one problem.
Eric had never raced before. In fact, he barely knew
how to swim. A few years earlier, the Olympic Committee
had founded a program to encourage athletes from developing nations

(08:49):
to participate in the Olympic Games. Eric was one of
those lucky wild card winners. At the time, he was
twenty two years old. Unlike me, he had been in
the water before, but competitive swimming was almost unheard of
in Equatorial Guinea. In fact, the country didn't have a
single Olympic side swimming pool. Regardless, Eric started to train.

(09:18):
Since there were no fifty meter long pools available, he
practiced in a tiny twelve meter pool at a local hotel,
which permitted him to swim three days a week from
five to six In the morning. When the hotel pool
was closed, Eric practiced his stroke in a nearby river.
Local fishermen gave him tips on how to kick and paddle,
but it wasn't exactly a lesson in swimming, as he

(09:41):
put it, it was mainly advised on how not to sink.
After eight months of training, Eric flew across the world
to compete. It was the first time he had ever
seen or been in an Olympic sized swimming pool. In

(10:02):
the days leading up to the race, Eric sat and
watched as the American team practiced. He didn't know how
to dive or how to properly move his arms or kicked.
He tried taking notes. Some people laugh and he reached
out for help, but eventually a friendly coach from South
Africa tried to teach him the basics, simple things, how

(10:25):
to breathe and how to dive into the pool without
belly flopping. On the day of the big race, Eric
was anxious. The arena was packed with spectators and he
was scared that he would do something that would make
the room erupt in laughter. Eric was specially nervous that

(10:46):
people back home were watching. I knew my family, my country,
my mother, my sister, my friends were watching me. He said,
That's why I was so hungry. I have to compete.
I have to do it. Eric had one thing that
eased his mind. His race was against two other wild
card swimmers, one from Nature, the other from Tajakistan. The

(11:12):
three swimmers took to the blocks, bent into their starting positions,
and suddenly, without warning, Eric's two competitors jumped into the water.
Eric stood at the edge of the pool, looking around
in confusion. It was a false start. The two swimmers

(11:34):
were immediately disqualified from the race, and with that Eric's
worst fears were realized. Now he was racing alone. Eric
took the block and at the sound of the starting pitch,
dove into the water. It was an impressive start. Eric

(11:57):
paddled his arms and kicked his legs, and he seemed
to be doing all right. But then when he reached
the halfway point, he hit a wall. He began flailing
his arms selplessly. One of the commentators said, there is
a swimmer who is in danger of drowning. The poor bloke.
With about forty left in the race, Eric struggled just

(12:19):
to stay afloat, gasped for her. He thrashed his arms
and his legs, which felt like jello, failed to move
at all, but the crowd was there for him. They
began to go wild. When Eric felt like giving up,
everybody in the arena cheered him on. Energized. Eric slowly

(12:43):
doggy peddled towards the edge, and when he touched the
finished line, the audience burst into chairs. It was the
first time Eric had ever finished a d race. He
completed it in one minute, fifty two seconds and seventy
two million seconds. It was the slowest underd meter time

(13:06):
in Olympic history. But Eric he didn't care. He had
finished and his time was technically a new national record.
He later told the press, I'm going to jump and
dance all night long in celebrations of my personal triumph.

(13:29):
After the race, Eric returned to the Olympic village for
a long nap. When he woke up and stepped outside,
he was swarmed by cameras and microphones. Eric's wonderful attitude
had earned him a legion of fans and turned him
into a celebrity. He was given a nickname for his

(13:51):
unusual swimming style, Eric Diyale. Eric They Ericdyale. For the
next few years, Eric would keep training and learning to swim.
He has since moved on to become Equatorial guineas national
swimming coach and now he spends his energy promoting swimming

(14:12):
throughout the country. And thanks to Eric, his countrymen no
longer have to train in tiny hotel pools. The nation
now has multiple Olympic sized pools to splash and swimming.
That's it for today's episode. I'm an openm Care. Be

(14:34):
kind to yourself and thank you for listening. Opum Cares
is a production of I Heart Radio. I'm your Host
an Open Care. Our executive producer is Mang Senior producer

(14:56):
Julian Weller, Associate producer Mark and Lavoy. Sound design and
mixing by Julian Weller and Dan Pausa, music by Aaron Kaufman.
Production support from Emily Maronov and Married du Writing by
Lucas Riley, Matt Riddle, Margoon Lavoy and Julian Weller. Lucas

(15:19):
Riley and Madriddle are our story editors. Thanks to Sikin Paru,
Hermon de Suza, Godwin Amana, Sidium Studios, Cornel Burne and
Bob Pittman. Anybody who has come to me has become

(15:39):
a champion.