12-Year-Old Wong Makes Waves at Junior Olympics

Swimmer David Wong hated getting up at 4:30 in the morning for practice so much he wanted to quit.

"It was hard to move my shoulders, it hurt so much," David said. "A couple of nights, I broke down and wanted to switch to a different team." 

Something inside made him stick it out.

The result was Junior Olympic gold. Lakeland Area Swimming’s David Wong won the 11-12 boys’ 200 meter individual medley in the Junior Olympics. He also finished in the top ten in five other events.

David, 12, of Lakeland, not only won the 200 individual medley by a lengthy distance in 2:28.09, he also took second in the 50 freestyle (27.64), third in the 100 freestyle (1:00.95), fourth in the 200 freestyle (2:12.70) and 100 breast stroke (1:20.45) and fifth in the 50 breast stroke (36.79) the weekend of July 18 in Fort Myers. Each time was a personal best.

More than 800 swimmers competed at the Junior Olympic meet, which is for many the first step to a promising swim career.

"We knew he could win," said Lakeland Area Swim assistant coach Mike Blum.

"Every meet you could see his confidence building," said head coach Duncan Sherrard. "He’s done a good job at working hard."

David started swimming at age 6, but he gave it up to try other sports. At 11, he returned to the sport.

"I wasn’t as good as I was at swimming," he said. "I just enjoyed swimming more."

He was swimming for a club in Lakeland but wanted to be challenged more.

His parents, Tony and Renee, suggested he switch to LAS, which is a fairly new club in the area.

Practices were longer, and the sessions included challenging dry land workouts.

"It really hurt," David said. "I was overwhelmed with all the work we were doing."

He thought about giving up.

"I think I just need to stick with it because it gets me to places like this," he said, while holding his medals and ribbons.

At first, he worked with Blum and Sherrard on technique instead of speed. He was finishing in the top 10 in meets.

"It was good coaching," he said.

David thought he could reach the 200 individual medley Junior Olympic qualifying mark easier than the mark in a few of his other events.

He reached several of his qualifying times long before the Junior Olympic meet. Then he started working on speed in training.

He took second in the 11-12 boys’ high point standings at the Trinity Prep meet, dropping plenty of time off his races.

"I was surprised at how well I was doing," David said. "I didn’t think I could go that fast."

He qualified as the top seed in the 200 IM in the Junior Olympic preliminary heat out of 46 swimmers, taking seven seconds off his previous best time (2:31). The second seed was seeded with a time half a second behind him.

"I was afraid he was going to catch me," David said.

David’s 200 IM swim in the finals had plenty of drama. He led the butterfly leg but lost the lead in the back stroke.

"You can’t see where you are going," he said.

He regained the lead in the breast stroke and then expanded it in the freestyle. In the end, he cut three seconds off his best time.

"We’re very proud of him," Blum said. "We will make sure to get some new goals, both short term and long term, for him."