For Klims, Son’s Health Is Golden

ATHENS —  By most measures, this should have been a difficult Olympics for Wojtek and Ewa Klim, a couple from suburban Melbourne, Australia. But it wasn’t, they said. Actually, just the opposite.

Their son, Michael, a star swimmer in the Sydney Games, didn’t approach that kind of stardom here. Like just about every other swimmer, he got lost in the shadow of Michael Phelps. He won one silver medal. For most, that would be the thrill of a lifetime, but in the world of elite swimming, that’s a long fall off the ledge from the two golds and two silvers in Sydney, and two world records in the process.

But the Klims were fine with it.

The day after their son’s 49.37-second leg in the 400 freestyle relay final, the Klims relaxed at the beach and were full of smiles. And Australia had finished sixth in that relay.

“You know what that meant to us?” said Wojtek Klim, who runs swimming camps in Australia and also an international trading business. “It meant that he is back, is healthy, is going to be OK.”

It had been a long road back from the lofty days of Sydney, where Michael had won gold in the 400 and 800 freestyle relays, and silver in the 100 butterfly and the 400 medley relay. He also has won gold 11 times in world championships dating to 1997.

So a silver, not to mention a sixth-place finish in one relay and a failure Friday to make Saturday’s final in the 400 medley, is a long fall. Unless you are the parents of Michael Klim, and you understand.

“The injuries and the trouble started with a basketball game,” Wojtek said.

“He just landed on his foot wrong, but it was close to time for the world championships, and you know how these kids are. They don’t want to be wimpy. So he kept on competing.”

Not only competing, but winning two relay golds, including a world record in the 800 freestyle relay.

But things weren’t right.

Eventually, surgeons removed seven pieces of bone from Klim’s foot, but competing with one injury had triggered others, and the troubles were just beginning.

“I think, maybe with a body like these swimmers have,” Wojtek said, “that if something isn’t balanced, then other things happen.”

Klim had two surgeries on his shoulder, crucial to one of the best butterfly swimmers in the world. He also had back disk surgery.

“It was something called a prolapsed disk,” Wojtek said, “and it had to do with liquid pressure around his spine. Very scary.”

So, Michael Klim, world-class swimmer in his mid-20s prime, went home to Australia. It would be nearly three years before he would return to elite competition. And it would be a nice time for Ewa Klim, who had her son around again.

“He loved having good food, mom’s cooking,” she said. “And I let him go with his friends, relax, be normal for once.”

He played golf and even dabbled a bit at tennis -- when his back was fine and he was playing a lot, he could hit a serve almost 125 mph.

Tennis also got the family familiar with the international scene, since Klim’s sister, Anna, a year older than Michael at 28, was once a world-class player who traveled to major tournaments before leaving the sport with an injury.

Wojtek traveled to tennis events with his daughter, and now sees that as perspective for dealing with Michael’s world.

“Swimming is so much easier,” Wojtek said. “The race lasts what, three or four minutes? Tennis, you sit there and see all those unforced errors and it just goes on and on, with more and more tension.”

Klim’s silver medal here came Tuesday, when he swam the second leg in the 800 freestyle relay.

But as far as Wojtek and Ewa were concerned, the two events that did not produce a medal for their son were perhaps the best. That first race back, the 400 freestyle relay final, told them that he could swim again on this level and without the pain he had suffered the last three years.

And then, Friday morning, Michael anchored Australia’s efforts in the 400 medley relay in the first of two heats. His team finished third in the heat but didn’t qualify for the finals.

So the family Klim’s Olympics were over, but statistics showed that Michael was back.

His time on the freestyle leg in the medley relay was 48.66 seconds; only two others in either of the heats were better -- Neil Walker’s 48.13 for the U.S. and Lars Conrad’s 48.37 for Germany.

Wojtek and Ewa Klim have their son back to health, which is all that matters.