EDWARDSVILLE – It has been said that one of the highest honors of a person's life is to be able to represent his or her nation at the Olympic Games.
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Sunset Hills Country Club coach Dan O'Keefe knows exactly what that's like.
O'Keefe has had the honor of representing the American territory of Guam in two Olympic Games, swimming for the Guam Olympic team at the 2000 Sydney (Australia) Olympiad and 2004 Athens (Greece) Olympiad.
“Being able to swim for Guam in the Olympics was a great honor,” O'Keefe said in an interview.
Under Olympic rules, territories such as Guam and Puerto Rico (for example) may organize their own national Olympic committees and take part in both the Winter and Summer Olympics once recognized by the International Olympic Committee; Guam's National Olympic Committee was recognized by the IOC in October 1987 before merging with the Guam Amateur Sports Federation. Guam first competed as an Olympic team in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, and has taken part in every Summer Games since.
O'Keefe was born into a military family; his father, a Vietnam veteran, was stationed in Guam when he was born but grew up in St. Louis. “I swam in clubs while I was growing up and then swam and played water polo for Parkway Central,” O'Keefe said “I wound up getting a scholarship to UCLA and swam there.”
Following his graduation from UCLA, O'Keefe returned to Guam and worked I the hospitality industry there. “Having been born in Guam, I found out I was eligible to compete for them (as a dual citizen), so I swam in a (Oceanic) qualifying meet in the 100-meter butterfly and beat the Olympic qualifying time to go to Sydney.”
Reaching the Sydney Olympics was what O'Keefe called “a fantastic experience. I immersed myself in the Australian swimming community while I was there and learned about the many great swimmers who have come from there; I trained both in Sydney and Canberra (the Australian national capital) and learned a lot about Australian culture.
“I didn't get past the qualifying rounds in my event in Sydney, but it was still a great experience; I didn't do as well as I would have liked in Athens, but being a part of two Olympics was a really big experience.”
O'Keefe realized he was in the Olympics during the Sydney Opening Ceremony at Stadium Australia (now called ANZ Stadium). “It was a charged atmosphere that night,” O'Keefe said. “That's when it hit me that I was in the Olympic Games, during that ceremony; it was a very exciting ceremony. The enthusiasm that was there fantastic.”
O'Keefe eventually returned home to the St. Louis area and wanted to be involved in the region's swimming community. “I knew I had quite a bit to offer,” O'Keefe said. “I spoke to Bob (Rettle) about what might be available in the area and he put me in touch with Sunset Hills; the people at Sunset Hills are really good people.
“It's great to work with the kids at Sunset Hills; we've got a lot of help and support from the parents there.”
