10-year-old takes his swimming seriously

While other kids were dressing up as pirates, superheros or hobos last Halloween, Cody Curtis was crafting Olympic medals. A swim cap and USA sweat suit made his Michael Phelps costume complete.

You would expect nothing else from a 10-year-old who swims five days a week with the Northern Lights Swim Club and has won a slew of awards. Cody usually places in the top three against 28 other 9- and 10-year-olds in the Inland Empire swim league. This is his third year competing and last year he collected five gold medals, two bronze, and tied for second place overall.

“When I go to swim meets I usually get a lot of ribbons,” Cody said.

The Fernan Elementary School student spends an hour or more after every school day floating effortlessly atop the waters at a local gym. His legs kick off like fish fins as he pushes away to start a lap. It’s cold outside, but it feels like a tropical island in the humid pool room. The noisy din of splashing arms and children’s chattering doesn’t distract the swimmer from forming the flawless, nonstop circles of his backstroke. That is Cody’s best event. He has a competitive butterfly and breast stroke, too.

“It’s fun, doing all the different sorts of strokes,” he said.

Cody may have no choice in his attraction to water. Swimming seems to be in his genes. His mother, Laura, started to swim at age 3 and entered competitions at age 5. She worked as a lifeguard for many years and was in that role when she met her husband, Mark, at a gym. The two athletes discovered they had more in common than a love of sports. Mark was a Navy SEAL for 24 years and Laura’s father was one for 30 years. Their 4-year-old son, Cole, swims twice a week and is set on entering meets next year.

A competitive spirit also runs in the family. Cody’s parents competed in the Coeur d’Alene Ironman and have entered triathlons for years. Even in a practice swim meet set up with boys versus girls, Cody swims with strategy. He looks over to see where the girls are in their lane and adjusts his speed accordingly.

“He thinks tactics,” said his father, Mark. “He enjoys doing this, he enjoys winning.”

Cody began swimming at age 5. With the ocean as a neighbor, his parents believed in the value of learning to swim at a young age. The family moved from San Diego seven years ago and now in the summertime Cody swims his laps in Lake Coeur d’Alene along the beach buoy line.

In between swimming seasons, he competes in Sting soccer and cross country running. He won cross country meets every year from kindergarten to fifth grade, except in the second grade, when he had a cold.

Since age 6, Cody has entered the Coeur d’Alene youth triathlon. The participants do a 100-yard swim, 4-mile bike ride and a 1-mile run. Cody won in his age group every time, even while competing against 12-year-olds last year.

He says that he likes practicing and racing alike, but when he wins it’s a special feeling.

“I’m happy and I’m surprised,” he said.

His swim coach, Lynne Pulizzi, finds Cody’s dedication and focus uncommon for a child his age.

“You tell him to do something and he really works at trying to do it correctly,” she said. “He’s one of my hardest workers.”

Pulizzi has been coaching Cody with the Northern Lights team since he was 6. She’s watched him win numerous times and says he does it graciously.

“He’s very humble about it,” she said. “He”s got one of the best attitudes. He’s excited that he won, but doesn’t gloat.”

At home, Cody has been known to tease the slower members of his family. He answers the phone by saying, “You’ve reached the fastest one in the house.” At an all-star invitational meet in Post Falls last year, he ran a mile in 5:28.

Cody runs and stretches with his dad every morning during cross country season, but mom doesn’t try to keep up anymore. His father admits that the 10-year-old’s sprints at the end of a workout leave him in the dust.

In addition to sports, Cody plays the piano and maintains straight-A’s. His father often asks if he wants to cut down on his extracurricular events since he is doing so much, but Cody insists that he likes all of it.

“We want him to have fun with it,” Mark said.

Even at practice sessions, Cody is often first in the pool and takes every lap seriously. He hits the pool wall at the end of his laps, even when other kids have called it quits.

“He’s definitely an overachiever,” Mark said. “It’s fun to watch.”