ASU’s men’s swim has eight international swimmers who came to Tempe for the opportunity to compete at a high level. The swim and dive program in total has 15 international athletes.
As evident by the number of international swimmers the swim program values the different cultures each athlete brings to the team and so does each swimmer. But the commitments didn’t come without challenges, at least for three Sun Devil swimmers.
For freshman freestyler Nils Lervik from Norway, senior freestyler Thomaz Martins from Brazil, and fifth-year grad student Thibaut Capitaine from France the journey to becoming a Sun Devil wasn't an ordinary one.
The challenges have just been a part of the journey for these swimmers, and that journey is one that ends soon for Martins and Capitaine. Martins said it’s not enough for them to just have gone through as just swimmers, they want to be remembered.
Nils Lervik (Freshman): Asher, Norway
After completing his SATs at the age of 19, Nils Lervik was determined to find his way into an American university to swim.
Lervik said he gave everything he had in the 2015 nationals for the purpose of recognition, and that’s exactly what he got. During his senior year of high school, Lervik received an email from the new ASU head coach, Bob Bowman, who he had taken the job a couple of weeks prior.
“Of course I knew who he was. I read Michael’s (Phelps) book, and I was waiting to read (Bowman's) book,” Lervik said.
ASU wasn’t the only school in the running for the Norwegian swimmer, but Lervik said the email from Bowman pushed him to seriously consider becoming a Sun Devil.
The challenge Lervik would face once he got to ASU was adapting to the weather change from Norway to Arizona.
“I’ve had morning practices in January where I had to go out and shovel snow before my dad drove me to morning practice,” Lervik said. “We are talking like half a meter of snow that just came over night, and maybe like minus 15 degrees Celsius.”
Lervik said he knew ASU was different than the other schools that had approached him when Bowman told him that he had stayed up late to watch a livestream of his swim meet in Norway, a six-hour time difference from the U.S.
When Lervik heard what Bowman had done, he didn’t hesitate to visit ASU.
"I realized I didn’t want to take any more trips because I really wanted to go here, so I committed on my trip,” Lervik said. “That was the first trip I took.”
He said he chose to attend ASU because he felt like he could be part of a team that's building every year. Part of that building process depends on the diversity of the team, something Lervik said has allowed him to learn from all of his teammates.
Thomaz Martins (Senior): Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
At the end of high school, Thomaz Martins was 19 and looking for an opportunity to swim at the next level. That opportunity presented itself with scholarship offers from a few American universities — one of which was ASU — but Martins was struck with instant conflict.
Although ASU was the best program to offer Martins a scholarship, the school’s initial offer wasn’t high enough for him to actually consider attending.
That’s when ASU assistant coach Dan Kessler got involved.
Kessler told Martins that he could look into Martins’ scholarship issue. Kessler also gave Martins a Skype campus tour while Martins was still at home in Brazil.
“I think everything fit perfectly,” Martins said. Everything but the winter weather, that is.
“Over the winter I am always the last one taking off my clothes trying to get in the water because it is so cold outside,” Martins said.
He has worked each year to get accustomed to the weather, but he said he has worked harder to leave behind a little part of him at ASU.
Martins said it’s not enough for him to just have gone through as just a swimmer, he wants to be remembered.
His hope of remembrance doesn't stop with himself, he wants his teammates to understand what having international swimmers brings to the team.
Martins said he believes the biggest take away from his fellow international swimmers goes deeper than learning and advantages.
“It just makes us better people, not just in the water but outside the water too,” Martins said.
Thibaut Capitaine (Graduate Student): Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, France
In 2012, Thibaut Capitaine was searching for a place achieve his goal to swim at the collegiate level and earn a degree.
Capitaine said he knew it was going to be too difficult for him to swim and earn a degree in France because of the schooling system there.
“It’s what it is, you’re a student, you’re an athlete. You can be both here (America),” Capitaine said. “Whereas in France, it’s challenging if not impossible.”
His search ultimately came down to three American universities, Virginia Tech, Alabama and ASU.
At the time a friend of his who was attending Alabama told him to he should really check out ASU, so he decided to email some of the coaches. After a couple of emails filled with broken English, he said he received some promising responses.
Without a recruiting trip, Capitaine committed to ASU at the age of 19.
Once he arrived to ASU he realized how difficult it was going to be for him to get accustomed to speaking American English rather than the British English he was taught in France.
“You read your NCAA national letter of intent and you don’t understand half of the words,” Capitaine said.
Capitaine, a graduate student, is nearing the end of his time as a Sun Devil and said he wants nothing more than to leave behind a lesson for the younger swimmers.
“Last year, I learned a lot when I was training with the pros for a couple months, and I hope that what I’ve learned with them regarding work ethic and always giving your best, I hope that the freshmen class this year and even the other classes have seen it,” Capitaine said.
Not only does he want the other classes to learn from him, but he said he wants his teammates to see the value in having diversity on the team.
“This I think gives us an edge on other teams that when we go swim against let’s say Stanford, that’s a pretty American team, you know ... we can compete against them because we have that,” Capitaine said.
Reach the reporter at atotri@asu.edu or follow @Anthony_Totri on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
