GETTING CARDED

Swimming World Magazine, Jun 2005

Lane 9

Some months ago, Mary Jo Swalley, executive director of Southern California Swimming (SCS), came up with the idea of producing packages of "Heritage Cards," a 52-strong deck of playing cards featuring the SoCal Olympians from 1936-2004. Ultimately, SCS printed 17,000 decks-one for every athlete, coach and official in the LSC-plus a few extra for Swimming World Magazine and USA-Swimming, which provided photos free of charge.

The cards, which are arranged according to themes, are educational as well as fun. For example, the four Kings are Aaron Peirsol, Lenny Krayzelburg, Brad Bridgewater and John Naber. What do they have in common? That's easy. Listed in order from most recent, they all won Olympic gold in the 200 meter backstroke.