Unlikely idol sets up Olympics path for Taiko Torepe-Ormsby
When Taiko Torepe-Ormsby says he has plenty of Olympic heroes, you expect to hear the name Michael Phelps come up shortly. Or maybe Danyon Loader. Possibly Usain Bolt.
Not Matt Hutchins.
But that’s who the fastest swimmer in New Zealand history has modelled his path to the Olympic Games on.
Torepe-Ormsby is set to be named in the swim team for this year’s Paris Olympics after becoming the first New Zealander to swim under the 22-second barrier for the men’s 50 metres freestyle at last week’s national championships in Hawke’s Bay.
The 20-year-old won the national title in 21.86sec to leap into Olympic reckoning, but had little time to celebrate as he flew back the next morning to the University of Wisconsin in the United States.
Torepe-Ormsby is nearing the end of his second year in Madison – where fellow former Christchurch swimmer Hutchins attended university in the previous decade.
“The Olympics is the pinnacle sporting event in the world, and there were always people I looked up to when I was younger – Matt Hutchins being one of them, moving away to Wisconsin to swim and study, and he went to the Olympics in Rio in 2016,” Torepe-Ormsby said this week.
“And I thought ‘I’ve got a real shot at this if I sort my shit out’ – there was no reason I couldn’t go too. I was 11 or 12 when he [Hutchins] moved overseas and I thought ‘damn, I want to do that’,” said the former St Albans School, The Cathedral Grammar School and St Andrew’s College pupil.
“It’s definitely sunk in now … realising that what I did last week was something special and I think it will definitely change my life for the better.
“I flew out the next morning back to the States, 28 hours of travel … those flights could have been a lot less fun if things hadn’t gone my way on Saturday.”
Torepe-Ormsby had developed an impressive national age-group record after starting to swim competitively at age 9 at Wharenui Swim Club, following in the wake of two older sisters.
But the change of scenery, resources and environment within the US college system have helped him develop as a swimmer “and as a human being, as a man as well, which is very valuable to me”.
“Juggling school, swimming and a social life, I feel this year it’s been much much better finding that balance, succeeding in the classroom as well as the pool and meeting new friends that I’ll have for the rest of my life,” said Torepe-Ormsby, who moved in September 2022 and now has a month left in his sophomore year; the second of a scheduled four-year scholarship.
“It definitely took me a while – being on the other side of the world was pretty challenging, both for myself and my parents.
“I’m racing a lot more, and a lot faster opponents. I’ve got some extremely fast swimmers around me that I didn’t always have with me in Christchurch. Here I have people pushing me both mentally and physically in training, which is really helpful and can be seen through my results.”
He has eight swimming sessions a week, along with three in the gym and two dryland sessions, while also having to manage classwork and homework outside those hours as he studies Consumer Behaviour and Marketplace Studies in a Bachelor of Science degree. “Sometimes that can be a lot of pressure. Managing that with the academic support staff has been a real help and taking a lot of stress off me.
“School wasn’t something I really enjoyed back in high school – this one makes me want to go to school and makes me want to swim, because without school I can’t be swimming.”
It’s not always easy to get out of bed early and head to training, however. “In Madison, for a solid week in January when it was near 30 degrees in Christchurch, it was minus 20 degrees
Celsius here.
“Sometimes I don’t want to get out of bed. But I set goals and I know I want to achieve something really special here and represent my family at the Olympics … so now getting out of bed will be much easier for me, knowing I can do it, and what I’m doing is working.”
Torepe-Ormsby received another recent boost when he met the University of Wisconsin’s most revered New Zealand student athlete – and it wasn’t Hutchins.
Kirk Penney helped the Badgers basketball team make the Final Four of the national collegiate championships in his freshman year, and ended his four years there as one of the programme’s greatest players in its history.
The former Tall Blacks and NZ Breakers star guard recently returned to take an assistant coaching role.
“We talked about life and what it was like as a student athlete, particularly coming here from New Zealand.
“He’s a really nice guy, I’ve got his phone number – it was really good to see another Kiwi face, hear another Kiwi accent.”
Torepe-Ormsby said the shortest distance at Olympic level had become his favourite event. “The 100 freestyle, 200 free, I’m getting extremely tired after that – I want to keep it quick and short, get the race done,” he laughed.
“Also, New Zealand hasn’t had many sprinters in the past – I like the title of being the fastest person in New Zealand swimming history.
His attention now will turn to improvements he’s seeking – to be more powerful off the starting blocks, better underwater, and to finish the race harder.
“My on-top-of-the-water swimming is very strong at the moment, so if I can get a bit more powerful, I’ll definitely be dropping a lot more time in Paris.”
That would be a remarkable achievement after he “managed to unintentionally get pretty ill” in his first year of university.
“A small trip to the hospital that became a few overnight sleeps – I think I was there for a week, with pneumonia and intestinal bleeding ... It definitely scared the parents a bit.
“I got healthy very quickly, got back in the pool, and got faster.”