Blank makes waves for Lake City swim program

Swimming isn’t the most popular of high school sports.

Some people – particularly in Coeur d’Alene, devoid of even an adequate training facility – probably didn’t even know it was a high school sport.

Thank goodness Lake City High’s Nick Blank doesn’t require the motivation of a wall of cheerleaders, a throng of fans, or a nearby pool, for that matter.

Blank, a junior, won two individual titles and added a third in a relay at the state swimming championships last week.

Though those medals are a great source of pride, Blank has his sights set a lot higher.

“My goal for this spring at nationals is to make the Olympic Trials cut,” said Blank, whose personal best of 16 minutes, 7 seconds in the mile is 14 seconds off the current mark. “I don’t know if I’d be able to make the Olympic team in 2008.

“But my goal would definitely be to make the Olympics.”

He said the time he needs to shave boils down to simple mechanics.

“Even 10 seconds isn’t that much in the mile, because it’s the longest Olympic event,” said Blank, who trains and competes year-round with Spokane Area Swimming. “Faster turns (are) basically all you have to do.

“I’ve always wanted to go to the Olympics, but making the Olympic Trials just recently came to me over the summer. I started talking to my coach over in Spokane about it and he was telling me how he truly believes I can make it.”

Blank, who’s been swimming competitively since he was 5, said watching his three older siblings compete is the source of his love for the sport.

But he had been in the pool a lot before that, and it was his mom, Katie, who was there for his first dip.

“My mom always tells me about it – it was the Mommy-Baby Swim,” recalled Blank. “I guess my mom took me to that and I was just screaming my head off. … I hated it.”

Nowadays, he hates it a lot less.

If he’s not in school, he’s in the pool, traveling to Spokane to train four mornings and five afternoons each week.

“Swimming takes so much dedication, because it’s the least fun sport to do,” Blank said. “Going back and forth in a pool a bunch of times doesn’t sound that appealing to most people.”

He said he’s made peace with the fact that there are probably never going to be huge crowds of T-Wolves fans at his events, but he would love to see his sport get more recognition.

“It doesn’t really bother me that there aren’t many people there,” Blank said. “It just kind of motivates me to work harder to prove to everyone that even though I’m not getting the glory, I can still do just as much they can.”

“I’m starting to get more and more recognized because of being in the paper and stuff, so maybe that will help swimming become a little more recognized as a sport.”