Guts and Glory - November 2009

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A Conversation With Alex Baumann

At the age of nine, Alex became involved in competitive swimming with the Sudbury Laurentian Swim Club under Dr. Jeno Tihanyi. He remained with his coach and in our community for all but four months of his entire swimming career.

At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Alex set new world record times and won gold in the 200m-medley and in the 400m-medley, bringing Canada its first gold in swimming since 1912. In 1987, Alex retired from competitive swimming and went on to pursue the coaching and administrative side of his sport and others. He moved to Australia, his wife's home country, in 1991 to initially pursue graduate studies. It was there that he became involved in sports administration and has now returned to Canada, in 2007, to spearhead the Own the Podium program as Executive Director; their aim is to re-establish Canada as one of the top sporting nations in the world. Even with his time invested in such a large project, Alex recently decided to return to the pool and competed at the Ontario Masters Swim Championships this spring where he set a new world record in the 200m-medley in the 45-49 age group.

Local Athlete: Caroline Ehrhardt

Caroline is a track and field athlete competing in long jump and triple jump from Espanola, Ontario. She received a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic Trials, she has broken 34 track and field records, she has won 3 national titles in triple jump this year, and ranked 2nd in Canada in triple jump this season.

Caroline has recently returned from Italy as a part of Team Canada at the World Youth Track and Field Championships where she placed 16th.

Graduating this year from Espanola High School, she hopes to compete in Moncton, New Brunswick at the World Junior Track and Field Championships in July 2010.

Local Athlete: Jordan Mulloy

Jordan competed in his first year of national trampoline; winning all three provincial qualifying meets. In may 2009, Jordan won gold at the Canadian Trampoline Championships becoming the first national trampoline champion from Northern Ontario. He is currently the only national trampoline competitor in Northern Ontario. During his graduating year from Lockerby Composite School, Jordan will be competing in the Open National category, the last stop before entering the level Olympic athletes compete in.