Two Jewish athletes from the Bay Area — Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Rami Zur — will represent the United States at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, joining a U.S. team of nearly 600 athletes competing in 30 different sports. The Games of the XXIX Olympiad begin with the Opening Ceremony Aug. 8 and conclude Aug. 24.
If you ask Ben Wildman-Tobriner why he started swimming, his answer is one you’d least expect.
“There was never a reason,” he says. “When you do something every day, it just grows on you.”
But perhaps it was the allure of the water that grasped hold of young Ben as he watched his older sister, Becky, glide through the pool with ease. Or maybe it was the countless trips his family made from its San Francisco home to a pool in Marin for summer fun.
Whether there’s a right answer or not, the questions have shifted recently from Wildman-Tobriner’s outstanding recent past to the present as he prepares for his first shot at Olympic gold in Beijing.
Wildman-Tobriner skyrocketed into the upper echelon of the swimming world when he unexpectedly won the 50-meter freestyle at the 2007 World Championships in Australia, then followed that up last year with a U.S. title in the same event. He even signed a four-year contract with Speedo.
Those successes mean a great deal to Wildman-Torbiner. But he can’t deny the unique place the Olympics hold in sports.
“Within the swimming world and with the public, the Olympics represent the pinnacle of the sport,” says Wildman-Tobriner, 23, whose family has long been a member of Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco. “To finally be able to participate is going to be really exciting. It still hasn’t really sunk in yet.”
In Beijing, Wildman-Tobriner will compete in his signature event, the 50-meter freestyle, and he’ll also be part of a United States 4×100 freestyle relay squad, along with fellow Jewish swimmers Jason Lezak of Irvine and Garrett Weber-Gale of Milwaukee.
Having three Jews on one four-man relay team “brings us closer together,” Wildman-Tobriner says. “I mean, we’re not going to services together during the [training] camp, but it’s one more thing we have in common.”
Some teammates have taken to calling Weber-Gale and Wildman-Tobriner the “hyphenated Jew crew,” and the Jew-heavy relay squad has been the source of many jokes, Wildman-Tobriner says, adding that it’s all in good fun — and that he’s proud to be representing his culture in an Olympiad.
“Together we are some of the few Jews in the United States and the world to participate,” he says.
Wildman-Tobriner, who learned to swim at the Boys and Girls Club in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, secured one of 22 spots on the men’s team with a second-place finish in the 50-meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha, Neb., last month.
His time of 21.65 seconds was enough to edge out Cullen Jones (21.81) and Gary Hall Jr. (21.91), but it was Weber-Gale (21.47) who surpassed them all on the final lap.
Apparently, the bonds of the hyphenated Jew crew are stronger than time differentials.
In the weeks leading up to the Games, Wildman-Tobriner has worked on finding ways to get a little faster and a littler sharper — before any nervousness hits him in China.
“After going to so many high-level meets, we’re good at controlling our nerves,” he says. “But there’s nothing like the Olympics to get your heart going.”
The last time a swimmer from San Francisco made the Olympics was in 1972, when Lynn Vidali took home a bronze medal in the 200-meter individual medley. In 1948, Anne Curtis brought two golds and a silver medal back to San Francisco from London.
Curtis’ was a name that Wildman-Tobriner’s parents would remember when selecting a swim coach for Ben and Becky.
Michael Tobriner, an attorney, and Stephanie Wildman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, enrolled their children in the Anne Curtis School of Swimming in San Rafael, where the Olympic great spotted Ben’s potential almost instantly. But his parents wanted him to try other sports in case his interest in swimming fell flat.
“He played all the sports he wanted to play when he wanted to,” says Stephanie Wildman, who encouraged her son to play baseball, basketball, soccer and tennis. “I’m happy that he likes swimming, but that was his choice, to stay in swimming.”
On countless Saturday mornings, the Wildman-Tobriners swapped synagogue for swim meets — what Wildman affectionately refers to as “the other temple.”
The family enjoyed customs in other ways, such as gathering for Shabbat dinner or observing holidays at home rather than at Sherith Israel.
Bar mitzvahed 10 years ago, Wildman-Tobriner learned Hebrew and studied Torah with Rabbi Martin Weiner, the rabbi emeritus at Sherith Israel. Weiner recalls Wildman-Tobriner was a good student who managed his time between sports, school and synagogue.
“As a rabbi, I always gave a bit of slack to young people who were involved in high school sports,” Weiner says. “I don’t recall Ben having any conflicts with high school practice. He was a very bright, dedicated young man inspired by a very committed Jewish family.”
A graduate of Lick-Wilmerding High School on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco, Wildman-Tobriner went on to swim at Stanford University, where he majored in biomechanical engineering and was named 2007 Swimmer of the Year in the Pac-10 Conference as well as an Academic All-American.
He plans to attend medical school in the fall at UCSF, but that hinges on whether he finds himself standing on a podium and listening to “The Star-Spangled Banner” in Beijing.
“Swimming is a time-intensive sport, but you streamline your life into a way that’s good to live,” he says. “But more than that, no matter what level, swimming is a pure sport — no judging, just a race. In that way, I can see my hard work pay off.”