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Show Page A8 Thursday, August 9, 1990 Park Record World class swimmer sees life as a wet experience by SENA TAYLOR Record staff writer Park City is in the swim of things now that Gail Meakins has taken over the local aquatics program, on her way to building it into a year-round year-round activity that all ages can participate and compete in. "My big thing about swimming is that if you never learn how to play basketball or other sports, so what it can't kill you. But if you don't know how to swim, the water can kill you," says Meakins. "It's also one of the best lifetime sports you can do, and one of the few sports that you can compete in for your entire life." Meakins recently found that latter lat-ter fact true, when she took up competitive swimming after a several-year hiatus from the sport. She grew up in northern California, Califor-nia, just outside San Francisco, and began swimming at the age of 7. She continued competing in the sport until IS, when she entered a high school that had no aquatics program. At that time she took up gymnastics and dabbled in other sports such as track, but still taught swimming and had a job as a lifeguard on the side. Once out of high school she entered California State University at Sacramento, where she took her competition in gymnastics to a collegiate col-legiate level. Although she wasn't competing in swimming, she kept up the poolside work to help supplement supple-ment her college funds. Meakins earned an undergraduate degree in physical education, and decided to further her studies by going on to graduate school at the University of California Califor-nia in Berkeley, where she earned a master's degree in P.E. She had a goal of teaching gymnastics at the college level and getting into the administrative side of education. educa-tion. Meakins did just that, by accepting accep-ting a job offer as the women's gymnastics coach and physical education instructor at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Spr-ings. She went to the school which was in only its second year of accepting ac-cepting women into its classrooms. That fact alone was enough to give her culture shock from the liberal Berkeley she walked around the academy campus in awe that the cadets "had no hair!" Meakins' long-term career in gymnastics instruction wavered when she met her husband-to-be, Mark, who had just graduated from the aiaaemyTnaving pliyeXC?"" college-level baseball there. Mark, : : 1 r f f r Park City Profile -W ? W V" T ! TT FT ' Ihvmv A M'r v, -J't who now is a pilot for Delta Air Lines, decided to stick around the academy for six months after graduating to coach the baseball team, waiting to enter pilot training train-ing in Phoenix. A year later, Gail and Mark were married and living in Arizona, where Gail took jobs teaching junior high science, as well as gymnastics gym-nastics and volleyball. Four years later the couple's first child was born, followed by a second se-cond child three years after that. Within that time frame the Meakins lived in Minot, N.D. working work-ing for the Air Force, then later in Houston, where Mark took a job with Delta. The "extremely well-organized" swimming programs in Texas beckoned Gail back into the pool, following her young daughter who had gotten involved in a neighborhood swimming league. "I started officiating the meets, and I kind of found myself reliving my swimming days through my daughter," Gail recalled. "Just by chance, the local swimming league had a year-round program of master's swimming, and I had a chance to try it. I found out that I could still do Well, and I started competing. In Texas there's a lot of competition." The master's program is an organized swimming activity for individuals in-dividuals older than 25, which allows participants to compete on a national, and sometimes international, interna-tional, level. Master's swim meets offer every swimming stroke and the same distances that all swim meets offer. According to Meakins, "Some people who are in it are 90!" Meakins is a sterling example of what masters participants can do with aquatics. Last year, in August of 1989, she went to the national meet in Boca Raton, Fla., and placed plac-ed in the top eight in three events. Her excellent performances came as a surprise; "I was working work-ing out all by myself and wasn't doing do-ing that much to train, and it was a big meet there were 2,000 people at that meet and 40 were in my age group," she said. She followed that meet by attending atten-ding the national long-range , master's competition a year ago in North Dakota where she placed "well again, then uiOctober'she" went to the Pan Pacific Master's Meet an international event held in Indianapolis in a pool built for the Pan American Games. -' The pool was 50 meters long which is Olympic distance, ahd at that meet her relay team set a world record. Meakins also received receiv-ed a number of personal awards, which has qualified her to be ranked rank-ed in the top ten in ten different master's events. Still living in Houston, she became more involved with the local aquatics program, taking charge of the local chapter of the U.S. Swim Team, becoming a board member and "getting more involved with the administrative side of things." She organized swim-a-thons and published newsletters to promote her sport. She thought all of that would have to change when her family moved to Park City. The Delta base was closing in Houston, and Utah was the next choice. "The only on-ly thing I didn't like about Park City Ci-ty was that it didn't have a real strong swim team," she said. "I thought I would have to go to Salt Lake City to keep competing." That didn't keep her from moving, mov-ing, however. The Meakins bought a house in March, and two days after arriving here she was offered a job as the aquatics director at the Racquet Club. The recent improvements im-provements at the Racquet Gub, coupled with Meakins' efforts, have gone a long way in a short while to build the local swimming program. The team is now registered as a seasonal member of U.S. Swimming, Swimm-ing, the national aquatics organization. organiza-tion. That membership "will eventually even-tually provide our kids with every level of meet, even internationally," international-ly," says Meakins. Although she says it will take another year to get completely involved in U.S. Swimming, Swim-ming, Meakins is encouraged that the local program has already grown from 50 to 91 youths. Three local meets were held here this year, and the team went to Cedar City earlier this summer to compete com-pete in the Utah Summer Games. "The kids did well considering that they had only been in the water to train for a month before the Games were held," she said. "Next year we hope to take all the kids to the Summer Games." w Meakins attributes, a lot of the 'success to the new pool at the Rac-" quet Gub, because it is built to HWMP'r1 mm.M i 1 ' F . i h K mm n, mmti I". 'f;.:: " wMBB. - . mm mmm f , ... . , T.x - - v . ' L- I : I -J MOTICE OF TAX' IMCEEASE The PARK CITY FIRE DISTRICT has proposed to increase its property tax revenue by 16.81 , and to increase its total budget by 6.10 All concerned citizens are invited to attend a public hearing on the tax increase to be held on 8-15-90, 6:30 P.M. at 730 W. Rasmussen Road Note: 63.75 of the 16.81 increase in property tax revenues is the result of new growth. Gail Meakins makes Urines haooen wherever she goes. The aquatic program at the local 1-F pool has doubled in size since she took over the program in jviarcn competition standards. Since the city ci-ty now has a competition-size pool, Park City has received the bid to hold the state swimming championships champion-ships for U.S. Swimming next summer, sum-mer, which will draw more than 200 participants. "The city did go all out on the pool," says Meakins. "It's not only great for competition, but also for lessons. To me, lessons are the big thing, especially with the Jor-danelle Jor-danelle Reservoir being built and the increased exposure that Park City will have to water activities. Kids need to respect the water so that they can survive in it." So far this year, the lessons have been "jammed," and more than 500 kids have participated in the program. pro-gram. Although the swim team will quit training Aug. 18 when the last meet they can participate in is held, lessons have been extended through September. "We've tried to get as many people as we can," says Meakins, but even with the success rate, she is disappointed that the pool is not covered with a bubble so it can be used year-round. year-round. "There's no sense for the swim team to keep training after Aug. 18 without a bubble (the next meet isn't until later in the fall), but we will run the master's program and try to keep the lap pool open until October." Currently, Meakins is working on a committee that is trying to raise private funds for a bubble. She estimates it would cost $80,000 to install a bubble, then about $3,000 per year to maintain. She believes the program would pay for itself once it got started. "I think it's really important that a community like this, that has year-round residents, is able to offer of-fer a year-round swimming pro gram, and not just to compete. We would like to interact with the schools to teach swimming, and offer of-fer reasonably priced, good instruction instruc-tion to get these kids water safe and competant. "We get feedback that people want a bubble for all kinds of reasons. It would provide a facility that could be used by everyone, and it would complement the existing ex-isting recreational facilities here." en 0ih INVITE A FRIEND. For more information call toll free 1-80OS38-3463. RELIGION IN AMERICAN LIFE CAMPAIGN NEWSPAPER AD NO.RIAL-90-161&-1 COLx 3' Volunteer Agency: TCBLeber Kate Partners I I-' ' I MOTECE OF TAX MCEEilSE The city of Park City has proposed to increase its property tax revenue by 1 8 .80 -and to increase its total budget by 2 1 .3 . 1 All c :. icerned citizens are invitt to attend a public hearing on thj tax increase to be held on Thursday, August 1 6, 1 990, 6 p.m. at the Marsac Municipal Building, j; 445 Marsac Avenue. 1 Note: 62.24 of the 18.80 increase in property, tax revenues Is the result of new growth. ' |