COMING TO AMERICA

Swimming World and Junior Swimmer, Mar 2005 by Morales, Tito

Lithuania's Rolandas Gimbutis, a 24-year-old sophomore at the University of California-Berkeley undertook a journey like none other just to be able to train in the United States.

The University of California at Berkeley's Rolandas Gimbutis is not your run-of-the-mill NCAA Division I student-athlete.

First, there's his size. At 6-10, 250 pounds, the Lithuanian native is surely one of the largest athletes to ever climb atop the starting blocks.

Then there's the matter of his age. Gimbutis, a late-bloomer to the collegiate scene, made his NCAA debut in the fall of 2003 at the advanced age of 22.

Then, too, there is the sophomore's sprinting prowess. Already a seasoned veteran of international competition, Gimbutis, a two-time Olympian, created quite a stir last summer in Athens by ripping off a 48.85 in the prelims of the 100 meter freestyle. That morning effort-a full one-second improvement from his pre-Athens best-was bettered, at the time, only by eventual gold medalist Pieter van den Hoogenband.

What's most remarkable about Gimbutis, though, has little to do with either his physical dimensions, his experience level or his dynamic abilities in a swimming pool. Rather, it has to do with the long and improbable journey he undertook to become a member of the Golden Bears.

A PASSION UNCOVERED

Gimbutis was born and raised in Kaunas, Lithuania. Lithuania, a former Soviet republic that declared its independence in 1990, is a country of 3.5 million bordered by Latvia, Belarus, Poland, Russia and the Baltic Sea.

Most Americans only know the country because of its always formidable national basketball team. At last summer's Games, for instance, Lithuania was one of the teams that defeated Team USA in preliminary round play.

Basketball, in fact, is far and away the most popular sport in Lithuania. Competitive swimming, by contrast, has never been very high on the country's list of priorities.

It was Gimbutis' father, Romas-a gifted kayaker who nearly made the Lithuanian Olympic team in the 1980s-who introduced his son to the swimming pool when the youngster was just 4 years old.

"I loved the water from the beginning," says Gimbutis, recalling that it was passion at first dunking. "I remember swimming was hard, but it was also fun."

The community pool was only a short walk from Gimbutis' home, and over time, he found himself visiting the facility with increased regularity. At the age of 10, Gimbutis was already swimming twice a day-and he recognized that no matter how hard others tried to push him out onto the hardwood floor, he was adamant that his athletic future lay between the lanelines.

"I really prefer individual sports," he explains.

In 1997, Gimbutis' hard work began to pay dividends when he captured third place in the 100 meter freestyle at the prestigious European Olympic Youth Days. Two years later, he won a pair of gold medals in the 50 and 1.00 meter freestyle at the European Junior Championships.

Gimbutis has been scaling the ladder of swimming success with large steps ever since.

FROM EASTERN EUROPE TO THE EAST BAY

Gimbutis was familiar with Coach Mike Bottom's magic touch with world-class sprinters. He knew all about the likes of Anthony Ervin and Gary Hall Jr. and Duje Draganja.

"I basically came here for the coaching," he explains. "I know that the program they use (at Cal) is really good and works for all the best sprinters.

What he didn't know, however, was exactly what he was getting himself into when he committed to traveling halfway around the world for an opportunity to train in Berkeley Calif.

Gimbutis had originally sent a letter to head coach Nort Thornton expressing an interest in coming to his school...at least what arrived in Thornton's mailbox bore a kind of resemblance to being a letter.

"His English and sentence structure were so bad," Thornton recalls. "But I finally got the gist that he wanted to come to school here."

The veteran coach wrote him a standard reply, explaining to Gimbutis about the University of California application process- including details about requisite grade point averages, test scores and the like. Thornton wasn't particularly surprised when he never heard anything more about the matter.

Then one day-many, many months later-there was a knock on Thornton's office door.

"This guy filled the whole door frame," Thornton says with a laugh, remembering his very first glimpse of Gimbutis. "He had to duck down to get through it. Basically, he had a little gym bag on his arm, and it barely looked like anything compared to his size."

"I'm here to start," Gimbutis told Thornton in broken English. "Start what?" Thornton asked, eyeing the immense stranger warily.

After much confusion, and no doubt more than a little pantomime, Thornton came to realize that not only was Gimbutis the young man who had written to him a year earlier, but that he had now moved to Berkeley sight unseen to train with the Golden Bears. All of Gimbutis' worldly possessions, in fact, were contained in his small duffle.

Thornton, a long-time proponent of incorporating foreign athletes into his program, has mentored his share of international athletes. Never before in his 30 years of coaching, though, had he encountered anything quite like this.