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From left: Automotive Research Center Project Manager Bruno Vanzieleghem, Olympic medalist Dan Ketchum, ME Department Chair Professor Dennis Assanis |
Dan Ketchum, a fifth-year senior in ME, certainly has something to show for his summer break: a gold medal from the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Ketchum was one of four members of the 200-meter freestyle U.S. Olympic relay team that included six-time gold medalist Michael Phelps and LS&A junior Peter Vanderkaay.
Ketchum began swimming when he was seven years old. Living in Florida at the time, "it was the popular thing to do," he says. His friends were on a club team, so he tried out. "I didn't do very well the first couple of times I swam, but by the third practice I was doing 200 laps. I didn't like being the only one who couldn't do it."
From there, he only improved. By the time he was a sophomore in high school in Cincinnati, he had made it onto the National Junior Team; he was a National High School Champion by his senior year.
When it came time to choose a college, Ketchum says it was important to him to strike a balance between strong academic programs and a strong swim program. Michigan fit the bill. He also recalls Coach Urbanchek promising to give him every opportunity possible to make the Olympic team. "I came here, and he did. When I went to the Olympic trials, I said to myself, 'Coach has done all he can. I'm in the best possible position to do this and now I just have to go do it. Luckily I did."
Indeed. He swam his personal best: 200 meters in 1:48:67, which put him on the team.
From the trials, which were held in July in California, the team headed to Stanford to train for three weeks, then to Mallorca, Spain, for ten days to get accustomed to the time change and on to Athens for three more weeks. The training was intense, but not much more so than what Ketchum had been doing on the U-M swim team as swimming and diving senior captain, under the direction of Urbanchek.
For the past two years, he trained for at least five hours daily, four of them in the water, for five days each week. On Saturdays, he'd only swim for two hours, and Sundays the team had off. Of his schedule, he says, "you just do it. You get into the rhythm of waking up early and you know that you'll be dead and ready to go to bed at 10 p.m. Everything you need to do, you know you need to fit into that time. It becomes routine."
His regimen might have grown routine, but winning an Olympic gold was anything but. "It made 15 years of competing all worth it. There was this overwhelming sense of 'Wow, you did it. You've been working for this for so long--you've achieved your dreams, your goals, everything,'" he says.
While winning a gold medal was always a dream for Ketchum, "it kind of became a goal over time. I didn't start out planning to make the Olympics and earn a gold medal. Over the last four or five years it started to become a goal. And a more realistic one in the last year or two."
After being gone for two months straight, Ketchum came back to Ann Arbor just in time for the start of the fall semester. Currently he's taking classes and weighing post-graduation options. Since his return, he's also attended a celebration at his high school and the Golden Goggle awards, a black tie event sponsored by USA Swimming, "the Academy Awards of swimming," Ketchum quips. "That was fun."
He's also been invited to address numerous clubs and school groups to talk about his experience. Most often, he says, he's asked what it was like to swim with Michael Phelps ("Great--he was a big part of that relay") and what it was like to stay in the Olympic Village ("We were treated really well").
While it was hard to be away for so long, Ketchum says never once did he question what he was doing, or why. "I have no regrets. I was always very happy to be there and to live it up and take full advantage of the experience. I realize not many people get that chance."