Long-Distance Training Showdown at USC

We have talked about various pool training programs of Olympic heroes, from Maarten van der Weijden to Mark Warkentin. These swimmers have very specific training regimens and consistently performed at high levels while training – which helped make them great.

But, there is going to be a very special long-distance training program going on at USC in Los Angeles over the winter. The Olympic 400-meter freestyle gold medalist, Park Tae Hwan of Korea, will be visiting USC to train under renowned coach Dave Salo in January and February. 18-year-old Park gave Korea its first Olympic swimming gold medal in Beijing and immediately became Korea's most marketable athlete. Park will be training with the Trojan Swim Club and battling it out every day with Olympic 1500-meter gold medalist Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia for six weeks in early 2009.

Oussama Mellouli, who occasionally swims open water events like the RCP Tiburon Mile, is a ferocious workout swimmer and is looking to swim a 14:30 in the 1500-meter freestyle. Recently, Mellouli has been on a roll of the FINA World Cup circuit.

Watching these two swimmers battle it out under Coach Salo’s high-quality training program will be something special to see. Back-and-forth, up and down the pool, goggle-to-goggle, the two men will be putting on a show that only a few fellow Trojan Swim Club teammates will be able to see.

Photo of Park by Adam Pretty of Getty Images.

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