The Island's most talented young swimmers had an exciting boost this weekend (18th - 19th April) when they came face to face with one of the sport's outstanding champions.
In a remarkably low key visit, double Olympic medallist David Davies met with members of the Island swimming squads at the National Sports Centre (Douglas) and the Western Swimming Pool (Peel).
At last year's Beijing Olympics, the 24 year old from Barry, Wales, took the Silver medal in the men's 10 kilometre Open Water marathon. This was his second Olympic triumph: he hit the headlines in 2004 when, on his first Olympic outing, he claimed Bronze in the men's 1500 metre freestyle event.
In the last few years, he has also bagged several medals from the World, European and World Open Water Championships, and the Commonwealth Games. At the latter, he was the first Welshman to win a Gold in 32 years - and the first non-Australian since 1954 to claim a victory in the 1500 metre freestyle!
David, who travelled to the Island on the invitation of National swimming coach Sacha Djerfi, visited the NSC on Saturday evening to sit in on the Performance, A and B squad swimming sessions, and give inspirational 'advice and tips'. He then repeated the gesture on Sunday morning at the Western Swimming Pool in Peel. On both occasions, participants were able to chat with the self-effacing champion, who was happy to sign autographs for both parents and youngsters.
Describing the high point of his career so far, David told isleofman.com 'Going from one Olympics to the other, getting medals in both and staying at the top for four years, is really hard to do - to keep motivated and dedicated, and across two different events - so that was the proudest moment for me. Winning made all the hard work worthwhile.'
Of his open water success, David explained that, 'because of the endurance I had in the pool, I was offered Open Water when it was made an Olympic event. I gave it a go and just took to it. Adapting to the conditions wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I'm just really suited to longer distances.
'I really enjoyed the respect the athletes get, because it's such a tough event and very well-contested - it deserved to be in the Olympic programme. Now, I'm just really excited about moving it on to London 2012, to Hyde park, one of the focal points of the nation. Hopefully I'll have more experience then and try to go one better.'
David began competing when he was 8 years old and at 12, took part in his first British National event. He urged young swimmers on the Isle of Man, 'don't have any regrets, just enjoy it all. You've got a lot of support here and a good National Coach set-up, so just commit to it and give it your best.
'I was nothing special at your age - I just gave it a good go and dared to dream.'
