Everybody knows about Michael Phelps. Everyone has heard about the lame excuse for a pickup squad America called the Dream Team. Most people can even tell you about Paul Hamm and his much-disputed gold medal. But many Virginians are unaware that a couple of the University's own competed for their respective countries in last month's Olympic Games.
A graduate student in the economics department, Leo Salinas qualified for the Olympics with his home country of Mexico in last year's Pan American Games. A former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket swimmer, Salinas has been training for the Games with the Virginia swim team for over a year. In Athens, he placed 29th individually in the 400 freestyle and 15th as a member of Mexico's 4x200 free relay.
"When I walked out of the ready room to swim my first event, hearing my teammates cheer for me in front of a packed house -- that was the best moment," Salinas said.
Whereas Salinas may practice with the Virginia swim team, Vanja Rogulj is a current member. Hailing from Croatia, the ACC men's Rookie of the Year last season placed 26th in the 100 breaststroke and 37th in the 200 breaststroke. Despite only being a second-year in the College, Athens was Rogulj's second Olympic experience as he also competed in the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.
"The whole Olympics is just one big, great, unforgettable moment," Rogulj said.
But for Rogulj and Salinas, the opening ceremonies, watched by more than four billion people worldwide, was not a part of their Olympic experience.
"I didn't go to the opening [ceremonies] because I had to swim the next day," Salinas said. "A lot of swimmers didn't go that had to swim the first couple days because you have to stand up for a long time."
Salinas said he watched the ceremonies on television.
"This is the second Olympics that my races have been on the first day," he said. "Hopefully next time I will be able to be there."
Beyond the opening ceremonies, many people feared that the 2004 Games would be forever tainted by security concerns and the unavoidable threat of attack. Security became such an issue for American athletes that some, namely many NBA basketball players, chose to stay home.
"I was a little concerned because I thought, the Olympics, maybe something was going to happen," Salinas said. "But they were very strict. It wasn't easy to go into the village. There was one time where I forgot my accreditation and it took me like two hours to be able to go into the village and get a temporary pass."
Due in part to enormous security efforts, some fairly odd occurrences took place inside the Olympic village, which housed a majority of the athletes and was closed to the general public.
"You have to check your bags when you go into the dining hall," Salinas said. "But you know, you aren't going to leave your medal there. So you would see people wearing their gold medals and ordering two double cheeseburgers and stuff like that. It was pretty interesting."
As for now, Rogulj and Salinas are headed in separate directions. Rogulj is focused on the collegiate season this winter and has definite plans to attend the 2008 Games in Beijing. Salinas, on the other hand, is taking a break from swimming to focus on his responsibilities and class work as an economics graduate student. But no matter where they go from here, Rogulj and Salinas will have Olympic memories that will last them a lifetime.
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