1976 swimming Olympic gold medalist resides, coaches in Dallas

by Monica Dutia

DALLAS — Jim Montgomery’s career began when he learned to swim at the age of two. Three Olympic gold medals and 14 World Championships later, he has brought his love of the sport to Dallas, where he coaches both adults and children.

Montgomery grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, where he competed in and won numerous state championships during his high school years. He eventually earned a full scholarship to Indiana University, where he swam under James “Doc” Counsilman.

Since graduating with top honors at Indiana’s School of Business in 1977, Montgomery has continued to compete in World Championships and ocean swims. He founded the Dallas Aquatic Masters, a swim program for adults, which he now co-owns, and has been the Aquatics Director and Head Varsity Swim Coach at Greenhill School in Addison since 1998.

Backed by a supportive wife and five kids, Montgomery still participates in a number of competitions. He plans on competing in both a 56 mile bike rally benefiting Children’s Medical Center as well as a 2.4 mile swim at Lake Carolyn in September.

It sounds like you and your coach at Indiana, "Doc" Counsilman, were very close. In what ways did his guidance influence your talent?

I think he really taught me the science of swimming. I really learned how I needed to train. He was an American swim champion in the 1940s so he had a strong competitive swim background. He is known as one of the all time-great swim coaches and was a great resource and a great mind and student of the sport. I think great coaches can compromise with good athletes, so he was probably the most intelligent and smartest individual I knew and at the same time, had a great sense of humor and personality. I essentially see him as a second father figure. The coaching and relationship didn't end at the swimming pool; he could guide and relate to everything in my life. He had an incredible impact with hundreds of men.

What sort of events do you participate in now?

I still compete in Master's World Championships. I just competed at one in Perth, Australia this April. I also keep doing open water events, such as swimming up the Hudson River on Memorial Day. I kind of go in spurts; this year I did a lot of pool competitions, next year I'll do pretty much do all open water. Hopefully I'll do a New York City swim around Governors Island, and I'll definitely go out to Hawaii in 2009 to do the Maui Challenge swim.

You're about to release a book, Mastering Swimming in October. What is this book about?

It's geared towards the adult fitness swim crowd. What it does is bring someone that is a beginning swimmer that can barely swim the length of a pool and take them on a journey, whether it's for fitness, competition, or for fun. It will just guide them, whether it's the possibility they can compete in their first pool competition or swim in the open water. I've started to do a lot of the fear of water for adults here in town. A lot of adults have a fear of water, especially getting into the deep end of the pool.

In what ways does your family support you during your competitions?

I've got five kids. I think my wife holds the fort down which is great while I'm gone, cracking the whip on everybody (smiles). Last September, my youngest son went with me to swim the Maui Channel. They know that I've been swimming my whole life and that's who I am. Dad's a swimmer!

Tell me about how you founded Dallas Aquatic Masters.

I founded it in 1981 as a hobby. After about five or six years, I had about 400 people showing up to swim, the majority of whom were fitness swimmers. Then I made a business commitment to pursue that as a career. In 1988, Baylor University Medical Center approached me to help them build an aquatic facility, so I helped them open that up in 1990, which kind of furthered the Masters program. I broke away from Baylor in 1999, mutually, and formed a new corporate identity, Dallas Aquatic Masters, partnering with Bobby Patten who swam at SMU. I've started getting more into branding my own name and doing my own swim school for adults, hopefully writing more books, who knows, maybe some DVDs and clinics, talks, and all the stuff that goes with promoting swimming and promoting myself. I've got a new website and a new company. We're doing business as jimmontgomeryswim.com.

Some of your students at Dallas Aquatic Masters attend the annual Maui Channel Relay Swim in Hawaii. How many people from Dallas are going to Hawaii?

The competition started in 1983. I've probably gone about 18 times; I go every other year now. I kind of toned it down in the mid-nineties. We take a pretty big group; last September we took close to 60 people. I'm not going to go this year, I'll go next year. I've been on too many trips this year! But it's definitely a favorite- I'd go to Hawaii anytime!

This year there will be a lot less [people going], maybe half that number total. I think we promote it more every second year; we had such a big group last year. Bobby is going to take a group over, but we're signed up for this year and next year as far as all the bookings go. The majority of the people I teach and coach are fitness swimmers that really do not have a strong desire to compete. We're there to basically coach them and give them the proper mechanics, help them with their training, and hopefully motive them and give them goals to make this a lifetime sport. That's probably about 70-80 percent of the people we deal with. Then you have your tri-athletes. 10 percent aren't very good swimmers, then there's 15 percent that competed in high school and still want that competition. But the majority are adults that want to be coached and do it for fitness. We've been as high as seven hundred members. We're probably the second largest organization of our type in the country.

What other major competitions does the club have to offer?

Our club hosts local Masters Swim Competition four times a year. We've hosted some regional championships and we do take teams to master's nationals and Masters World Competitions. We also take groups to open water events, such as to Lake Travis in October where we do a 12 mile relay swim. Sometimes we've taken groups to San Francisco for the Escape from Alcatraz swim. We've done Golden Gate swims too. I've been thinking about taking a group to Fiji…they've got a great open water swim there. That definitely interests me.