She’s Taking Life One Lap At a Time : Michele Griglione Swims to a Different Beat, That Of a Piano, Not a Drum

By now, most people have heard the grim stories of the one-dimensional, Spartan life style that goes with being a world-class swimmer.

Ever since effective goggles were introduced in the 1960s, these athletes have churned through miles of laps a day with only an occasional hairball or fly on the bottom to break the monotony.

It’s a regimen that usually translates to five or six hours of training a day, in two grueling sessions with barely enough time to go to school in between.

Outside activities? Sure, swimmers enjoy activities outside the pool, if you consider a few hundred sit-ups, an hour or two of weight lifting or running four to five miles before a workout enjoyable.

Swimming coaches were saying it long before Jane Fonda made exercise videos: “There’s no gain if there’s no pain.”

There are no Babe Ruths in this sport, no champion swimmers with burgeoning waistlines. Talent alone is just not enough.

Most swimmers are convinced, too. If you put in a few more meters than the next guy today, it figures that you may be wearing an Olympic gold medal or reading your name in the record books tomorrow.

Many, though, find the price too high and sooner or later refuse to pay it. For Michele Griglione, however, the whole point seems moot. She appears destined to find swimming fame at a bargain price, and her life--both in the pool and out--is already blossoming.

At 15, she finished third in the 200-meter individual medley and fourth in the 400 individual medley during last summer’s Olympic trials, just missing spots on the United States team. Two weeks after the Games, she swam a time that would have earned her a silver medal in Los Angeles.

But Griglione, of Alexandria, Va., is more than just one of America’s rising young stars and a gold-medal candidate for 1988. Already, she’s a 16-year-old woman for all seasons.

She has been playing piano for eight years and has already performed in a trio including violin and cello at Alexandria’s Christ Church, where George Washington once sang hymns, and in other mini-concerts.

She is almost a straight-A student who plans to major in chemical engineering and has already studied German for four years. “I’d like to be an engineer for Mercedes-Benz in Germany,” she said, laughing. “It’s sort of a dream of mine.”

Where does she find the time to practice piano, learn a foreign language and consider a career in international big business? Well, for starters, she only works out once a day for three hours most days.

Once a day?

Is she trying to revolutionize the sport?

“I generally leave all my training schedules to my coach (John Flanagan, at Curl Swim Club in Washington, D.C.),” Griglione said. “He knows what’s good for me. I’m just 16 and I guess when I’m 19 or 20, that’s when I’ll start worrying about whether more yardage would be beneficial.

“I know other swimmers work out more, but I think it’s good because I know I have somewhere to go, room to improve. There’s still more yardage and more hours I can put in. That’s an advantage.”

Flanagan said that his team does put in some two-a-day workouts, but added: “You’re correct in assuming that our team isn’t going as much as some others are.”

Clearly, though, there’s method to what some might call Flanagan’s madness. Griglione has already turned in the fourth-fastest 400-meter individual medley time in the world this year, and that was in a race where she had a huge lead.

She figures to go much faster during the Phillips 66-U.S. Swimming national meet beginning Monday at the Mission Viejo International Swim Complex, when she faces nemesis Erika Hansen, a 15-year-old who has the world’s fastest time this year in the 400 individual medley.

Griglione will also swim the 200-meter individual medley, the 100-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly this week.

“She’s very, very, very intense about this meet,” Flanagan said.

Griglione’s concentration is probably responsible for much of her success. She’s bright, extroverted and above all, self-disciplined.

“She’s very mature,” her mother, Carolyn, said. “She always has been, so it doesn’t seem unusual to us. I would hope that would help her swimming.”

Flanagan is sure it does.

“She’s very confident in everything she does,” he said. “She had great concentration when I started coaching her as a 12-year-old and she still does. That’s definitely part of what makes her the great swimmer that she is.”

Another part probably has something to do with perspective, which may be missing from some of her peers’ lives.

“I can truthfully say that she has never dreaded one minute of practicing,” her mother said. “That’s not saying she’s always enjoyed every workout her coach has given her, but she’s never once said, ‘Oh, gosh, I don’t want to go today.’ ”

That probably makes her unique. Generally speaking, swimmers love to complain. After all, they’ve got plenty to gripe about. But Griglione, it seems, has always been an unusual athlete.

“When she was 12 and a lot of kids were stepping up their yardage, she came to me and said, ‘You’re only 12 once and breaking 12-year-old national records is enough,’ ” Flanagan recalled. “So she did enough to break those records. And she’s taken it step by step since then, breaking 13-14 marks, then 15-16 marks and then concentrating on making the Olympic team last summer.

“The underlying motivating factor is her pursuit of excellence in every phase of her life. She’s always trying to be the best she can be and, so far, she’s achieved that, step by step.”

Griglione doesn’t talk a lot about it, but she hopes that her approach to swimming will lead to the top level of the victory stand in Seoul in 1988.

“I guess that’s every swimmer’s dream,” she said softly. “And I guess it’s mine, too.”

Michele Griglione got off to a good start in swimming. She started in a summer league at age 7 because it sounded like fun. Somehow, she’s managed to keep it that way.

“Initially, swimming certainly didn’t have any incredible appeal,” she said. “I loved to go to the pool and splash around so I joined the team. There wasn’t anything I didn’t like about it, so I kept doing it.

“Now, there’s nothing I don’t like about it.”

What’s not to like? Griglione has broken national age-group records all her competitive life while admittedly spending less time in the pool than most. Now she’s zeroing in on Tracy Caulkins’ American marks.

She didn’t get fast on concentration alone, though. Griglione, who stands 5 feet 10 1/2 inches, was gifted with the right genes and she wears them well.

Her father, John, was an honorable-mention All-American linebacker at Iowa State. Now, he’s an administrator with the FBI.

But don’t count out her mother’s side of the family, even if dad gets a little more attention.

“We laugh about that,” Carolyn said. “Everyone talks about John. One article came out and I was listed as the 5-11 mother . . . well, at least I’ve gotten that far. No name, but at least they know I’m 5-11.”

Michele thought her academic pursuits might benefit her swimming, too. Last January during an international meet in Arkansas, she was riding a shuttle bus between pool and hotel with the East German team and figured her knowledge of German might start paying dividends long before she was earning a paycheck.

“I didn’t talk to them, but I did listen ,” she said, giggling. “I sat near them on the shuttle and eavesdropped on their conversations.

“They didn’t say anything about strategy, though,” she said, sounding truly disappointed. “Mostly, they were amazed that everyone still had their Christmas lights out.”

They probably would have been more amazed if they saw this young lady’s workout log.

Few of them knew who Griglione was then. But she’s got their names, best times and projected best times in a little notebook she always keeps with her. And, if they don’t know who she is yet, they might be in for a big surprise in 1986 at the World Championships.

Flanagan doesn’t want to think about that, now, he hopes Griglione isn’t thinking too much about it.

“Susan Rapp just joined our team and she brought her (Olympic) silver medal by for everyone to see,” he said. “They all looked at it and held it and I’m sure some of them had a view down the road.

“But if Michele starts to project her thoughts three years down the road, she’s going to dilute the very special talent that she has. I hope that doesn’t happen.”

It doesn’t seem likely. Griglione never seems to be in a hurry, except in the water. And who knows, by 1988 she may be performing in Carnegie Hall, working in Germany to help design better luxury cars for America’s elite and winning gold medals in South Korea.