At the NCAA Division III Swimming Championships next weekend in Minneapolis, you can expect to see plenty of accomplished athletes get caught in the glare of the national spotlight.
But not Hopkins sophomore Ryan Kim. For Kim, who will be competing in five events, the national spotlight is about as blinding as a lava lamp.
For starters, this won't be Kim's first NCAA championships -- last year, as a freshman, he placed seventh in the 100-yard backstroke, ninth in the 200-yard backstroke, 12th in the 200-yard individual medley and was also on the bronze medal-winning 200-yard and 400-yard medley relay teams.
But even that meet must have paled in comparison to one of his previous feats. At NCAAs, he was competing against his country, not for it. When Kim was just an eighth-grader in Seoul, Korea, he competed for his country's junior national team at an international meet in Taiwan, winning two of the five events he swam.
By the time he came to America in ninth grade to attend the Georgetown Preparatory School in Bethesda, Md., his reputation as an international star preceded him.
"My high school coach suggested that I go to Korea to swim at the 2004 Olympic Trials. Everyone thought I really had a shot, since it's a lot easier to make the Olympic team in Korea than in the U.S." Kim said. "But that would have really required me to put in much more time in the pool, and the trial took place when I was a senior in high school. So I decided to be a normal high school kid instead."
But the swimmers at Georgetown Prep made sure Kim -- and everyone else -- was aware of the caliber of their foreign standout.
Senior Sean Kim (no relation to Ryan), co-captain of the Blue Jays, remembers competing against Georgetown Prep when he was a senior at nearby Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville, Md.
"At our high school state meet, his team put up signs saying they had an Olympic swimmer from Korea," said the elder Kim. After Ryan Kim's coach mentioned that he should try out for the Korean team, calling Kim an Olympian became a joke -- and an intimidation tactic -- for the swimmers at Georgetown Prep.
Kim says that after high school, he decided to come to Hopkins to make the transition from "normal high school kid" to "normal college kid."
Of course, as we know, Kim has a loose definition of the word "normal." Currently, he's the kind of normal college swimmer that has the second-best 100-yard backstroke and third-best 200-yard backstroke times in Division III.
"I'm sure I would feel very special for representing my country, but I already feel special for representing this institution," said Kim.
Kim did a lot more than just represent Hopkins at last weekend's Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship. According to his teammates, Kim's win in the 100-yard backstroke on Saturday gave the team the morale boost they needed to win the meet.
"He has a tremendous influence, and he's one of the reasons a lot of guys on the team started swimming well this weekend," senior co-captain Gary Itskovich said. "His win made a big shift in all of our mindsets."
The Blue Jays were in sixth place coming into Saturday, the second day of competition, but Kim's win in the last event of the day pushed the team into first place going into the final day of the meet. Despite being one of only three Division III teams at the meet, Hopkins held on to win their second ECAC Championships in three years.
"On the second day [of ECACs], I shifted a gear and started to get going," Kim said. It was totally unexpected for me to get a lifetime best in the 100-yard backstroke, since I wasn't shaved and tapered for the meet."
"We always know he's going to perform -- there's no question about whether it will be a good swim or a bad swim for him," senior co-captain Tyler Harris said. "Everybody's looking forward to seeing what he can do at Nationals."
Everybody except for Kim, of course. He already knows what he's going to do.
"I am very excited for this meet because there is no doubt in my mind that I am going to swim fast. At this point in time, I'm full of confidence," he said.
For him, the important question is how the team will place, especially considering they will be up against Kenyon College, who has won an unbelievable 26 consecutive NCAA titles, and beat the Blue Jays earlier in the season.
"This year, our team has a great shot of being the national champion and defeating Kenyon College," he said. "Therefore, my goal for this meet is to score as many points as I can. If becoming the national champion in my own event is the best way to help the team, I am ready to do so."
