Sarasota's dominance in water sports shouldn't be overlooked

Sarasota owns the water.

It’s the biggest conclusion I’ve come to on the job. Upon my arrival here, I knew next to nothing about the sports scene, except that the Baltimore Orioles held spring training here and the Sarasota High baseball team produced a lot of collegiate and pro talent.

I had little knowledge of the city’s water sports, but that changed as soon as I got here. It seems like the accomplishments go relatively unnoticed outside of the individual sports themselves, though, so I’m here to remind everyone of how lucky we are to be living in a bustling water sports city.

Let’s start with the obvious: The rowing scene here is insane. On July 21, six Sarasota rowers were named to USRowing’s Under 19 National Team, which will compete in the World Rowing Junior Championships starting Aug. 8 in Racice, Czech Republic. That includes Clark Dean, who made history at the same event last summer by becoming the first American in 50 years to win the men’s single scull. Sarasota Crew coach Casey Galvanek was also selected to be the U19 team head coach. And, of course, the 2017 World Rowing Championships put Sarasota on the global map in terms of rowing at large. That contest, plus future international races at Nathan Benderson Park, have Sarasota in prime position to become the southern hub for rowing in this country.

But it’s not just rowing. Area swimming, too, is dominant.

The Sarasota YMCA Sharks won the combined team title July 15 at the 2018 Summer Florida Age Group Long Course Championships, and the Sarasota Tsunami finished third. The Sharks have won 12 of the 14 FLAGS events since 2004. This year’s championship was one for the history books, as the Sharks’ Addison Sauickie set FLAGS record times in the 100- (59.27 seconds) and 200-meter (2:06.23) freestyle races, and Gracie Weyant did the same in the 200 individual medley (2:23.27). Tsunami swimmer Dimiter Zafirov posted the best 400 freestyle time (4:07.81) of any 13-year-old in the country this year, and Zafirov, Evan Keogh, Cole Firlie and Colton Frantz set the Florida long course record in the boys 800 freestyle (8:08.84).

Thanks to teams like the Sharks and the Tsunami, the Riverview High boys team has won four-consecutive state titles, and swimmers like Sarasota High’s Isabel Traba can commit to NCAA Division 1 schools, like Traba did July 13 when she committed to the University of Miami.

It doesn’t stop at the high school level, either. Former Ram Austin Katz, who will be a sophomore this fall at the University of Texas, won the 200 backstroke (1:37.53) March 24 at the NCAA Championships in Minneapolis. If you want to go farther into the past, Kimberly Linehan (1980, 1984), Cindy Getteninger (1980) and Tripp Schwenk (1992, 1996) all made the Olympics after swimming with Sarasota YMCA.

Then there’s sailing. Young sailors such as Lilly Myers, Mark Brunsvold, Dylan Heinz, Dalton Tebo and Charles Tomeo are paving the way for others, like Sarasota Youth Sailing alumnus Ravi Parent did for them. Parent, who attends Boston University, is training for the 2020 Olympics in the Nacra 17 class with partner Caroline Atwood.

This fall, there’s going to be a sailing boom. The 2018 F18 Worlds Championship Regatta is coming to Sarasota from Oct. 12-19. It was organized by the Sarasota Sailing Squadron and will be the first international sailing championship held in Sarasota since 1983, according to regatta chair Jesse Brunsvold.

“It’s a great honor,” Brunsvold said. “It’s going to put us on the map. It’s a great spectator sailing event. These boats (F18s) are so fast and the sailors are so athletic. They’re risk takers. It’s going to be really exciting.”

Soon after that regatta, World Sailing (the sport’s governing body) will hold its annual 2018 Annual Conference starting Nov. 4 at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota. It’s the first time the conference will be held in the United States. Just prior to the conference, on Oct. 30, the inaugural eSailing World Championship will be held at the hotel. That isn’t technically a “water sport,” but bear with me. Contested through sailing video game Virtual Regatta, the championships are designed to help fans without access to equipment or facilities engage with the sport, according to World Sailing’s website. The game has more than a million active users — half of which are non-sailors. In other words, landing the championship is a huge deal.

The evidence speaks for itself. Nowhere else in Florida — possibly the country — produces the combination of talent and international events in water sports that Sarasota does. So what’s next? We probably can’t take surfing from California, but what about water skiing? Wakeboarding? Water polo?

We can’t settle for the level we’re at, so let’s keep up the domination. If no one else recognizes the city’s accomplishments, history will.