A turn for the breast

Swimming World and Junior Swimmer, Aug 1998 by Fowler, Ethan

Male High school Swimmer of the Year.

Patrick Fowler's road to success took a turn for the best when he became the fastest high school swimmer ever in the 100 yard breast.

Three years ago he didn't practice much, his 100 yard breaststroke time wavered around a 1:02 and he was more interested in snowboarding than swimming.

That was 1995. Since then, 17-year-old Patrick Fowler has dropped nearly nine seconds in his 100 yard breaststroke to become the fastest high school swimmer ever in the event.

After smashing both the national public and independent school 100 yard breaststroke records. Fowler was named Swimming World's Male High School Swimmer of the Year. He broke the 1982 public mark of 54.42 set by Palm Springs' (Calif.) Rickie Gill and the 1990 time (54.35p) of Barcelona Olympic gold medalist Nelson Diebel with his eye-popping 53.66 effort at the Washington state high school championships in February.

Fowler, who competes year-round for Bellevue Club and will be a senior at Seattle Prep High School in the fall, quickly proved he was no flash-in-the-pan. A little over a month later, he captured first place in the 200 meter breaststroke at senior nationals in Minnesota, clocking a 2:16.16, and was second in the 100 with a 1:01.96 to American record holder Jeremy Linn.

As for the future, he has three goals: to challenge the 100 meter world record time of 1:00.60 held by Belgium's Fred deBurghgraeve since 1996; to break the 52second barrier in yards; and to compete for America in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Unfulfilled Potential

However, despite Fowler's amazingly rapid ascent among the world's best, many observers consider Fowler soft because of his lack of work ethic. Seldom, if ever, did he complete a full practice or even make half of the week's practices a year ago. To many-and even to himself-the easygoing 6-1,160-pounder had potential that was unfulfilled.

"To an extent, I was pretty much a slacker most of the time until probably this fall and winter," said Fowler, the first Washington swimmer to be named SW's Male High School Swimmer of the Year. "Occasionally, I would work really hard for almost a week or two at a time when I just felt great. It seemed like that was when they called me a slacker most. They would see that I had the ability to work hard, so they realized I was even more of a slacker."

After moving back to the Seattle area when he was 10 years old from Berkeley, Calif., Fowler said he was "never really in good shape" during his first three-and-ahalf years with Bellevue. He estimated he went to three workouts a week.

"People would ask, `How can you drop all this time if you don't work?' and it usually was 'I don't know.' Right now, it's because I'm working hard," he said.

One of Fowler's Bellevue Club teammates for the past three years, Ryan Miyake, couldn't agree more with Fowler.

"I think he works a lot harder than people give him credit for," Miyake said. "Pat knows he doesn't work as hard as some people, but he does work harder than he used to, especially this year. You can't get that far without some kind of work."

Hard Work Pays Off

And that hard work reaped dividends when he made history on Feb. 20. Fowler brought the large King County Aquatic Center crowd to a fever pitch, cranking out a 25.05 split at the 50 in the finals of the 100 yard breaststroke. He didn't let up over the last 50 yards, as he blew away the eight-year-old national record with a stunning 53.66 clocking.

"Honestly, that was my goal for next year, and I just broke through it," Fowler said after his astounding swim. "Everyone was saying what times I could do and the fastest one I heard was 53.79, and I can't believe I beat that.

"It didn't even register," Fowler said of his first glance at his time on the massive scoreboard, which was used in 1990 for the Goodwill Games. "I saw I won and slapped some hands and looked back up there and said, `Did I really go that?' Wow! That's all I can say. I'm speechless right now. I don't know how I've been able to get this many words out."

His high school coach, Mike McCloskey, was equally awestruck.

"I'm shaking, man! Where's (recently deceased Chicago Cubs announcer) Harry Caray when you need him?" McCloskey exclaimed. "Oh, my God! I thought he could break a 54, but a 53.66-there's going to be a lot of college coaches on the phone Monday."

Naturally, a lot has changed for Fowler over the last six months since his stellar state performance. People now ask for his autograph rather than asking for his whereabouts around practice time.

"People went from saying, `If you're good, why don't you get any press?' to `Fowler, you're in the paper again', sarcastically," said Fowler, who also played soccer and basketball through the eighth grade. "I've signed some autographs and I signed about 10 at the state meet, which was really weird. I also signed a whole bunch at senior nationals and a whole bunch at England (Speedo Super Grand Prix meet). I'm getting a little more used to it, but it's still pretty awkward."