Malibu Resident to Compete in Olympic Swimming Marathon

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - Jordan Wilimovsky of Malibu is set to compete in the men's Olympic 10-kilometer marathon swimming event Tuesday at Fort Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro.

The expected field of 25 will swim four laps around buoys. They wear computer chips on their wrists to record their times. If a swimmer completes the event without the chip, he will be disqualified.

The 22-year-old Wilimovsky said his goal is to "swim the best race I am capable of swimming."

"If that gets me 10th, but if I swim the way I want to swim, I'll be happy with that," Wilimovsky told City News Service in an interview last month.

Wilimovsky said he had no concerns about the water conditions.

"USA Swimming is not going to make us swim in water they think is dirty or unsafe," Wilimovsky said, referring to the sport's national governing body.

USC alumna Haley Anderson, the fifth-place finisher in the women's race on Monday and the silver medalist in the event in 2012, said that "in open water, the 10K is super mental, almost more mental than it is physical, so it's really important to just be positive."

"Positive self-talk the whole time in your head," Anderson said on Monday.

Wilimovsky qualified for the race by winning the 10-kilometer open-water swim at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia, in one hour, 49 minutes, 48.2 seconds — 12.1 seconds ahead of runner-up Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands.

Wilimovsky last month became the first American to qualify for both open water and pool competition at the Olympic Games in the same year. Open-water swimming has been part of the Olympics since 2008.

Wilimovsky finished fourth in the 1,500-meter freestyle on Sunday in a personal-record time of 14 minutes, 45.03 seconds. Gabriele Detti of Italy won the bronze in 14:41.20.

Wilimovsky said in a typical week of training, he will swim in 10 sessions, 6,500-7,500 meters in each morning session and another 8,000-9,000 meters in the afternoon.

"The type of work Jordan has done is pretty unique," said Dave Kelsheimer, who coaches Wilimovsky with Team Santa Monica and is the open water assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic swimming team. 'There are very few athletes on the planet who can do the sorts of things he is capable of doing.

"He comes with a very unique mental focus and a degree of intelligence that allows him to squeeze a lot more juice out of the orange than most human beings."

Wilimovsky graduated from Malibu High School in 2012 and attends Northwestern, where he is majoring in political science. He has one year of athletic eligibility remaining.

Wilimovsky said he began swimming when he was 9 years old to qualify for the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Lifeguard Division's Junior Lifeguard Program, which required participants to swim 100 yards in one minute, 50 seconds.

Wilimovsky failed to meet that standard in his first attempt, then joined the swim team at the Palisades-Malibu YMCA in 2004 and qualified for the Junior Lifeguard Program.

Wilimovsky said he gravitated to distance races "because I was never really any good at any other thing."

— City News Service, photo courtesy of Team USA