You know you’re old when swimmers that you watched and knew about as a kid now have children of their own who are becoming pretty darn good swimmers themselves.
Last weekend, one of our writers Collin Baldacci sent us a picture of the heat sheets from the 2013 Western Zone Age Group Championships in Roseville, California, and wouldn’t you know it, but in heat 4 of the boys’ 13-14 50 meter freestyle, Cy Jager representing the Inland Empire LSC and Cale Berkoff representing Montana Swimming were seeded side-by-side.
Berkoff would end up getting the better of the two in prelims with a 26.95 to Jager’s 27.07, but the younger Jager came through in the B final with a 26.79 to the younger Berkoff’s 27.22.
For the younger generation, Tom Jager was on the Olympic Teams from 1984 through 1992, winning 5 relay golds plus an individual silver and bronze in the 50 frees across those meets. David Berkoff was on two of those teams, in 1988 and 1992, where he also won a pair of relay golds, plus a silver and bronze individually in the 100 backstroke. He also set the World Record in the 100 back in 1988, which stood for over three years.
Jager and Berkoff both won gold medals for the 1988 medley relay, where in prelims Berkoff lead off and Jager anchored.
Woww… it must be tough for the Jager kids to swim 50 free, as their father held the longest standing WR among the men from 1990 to 2000, and first broke 50 free WR in 1985 and then did it again for 5 more times.
To clarify: in the 1988 4 x 100m MR, Berkoff led off, Jager anchored; Berkoff also led off the evening final. There was an interesting set of circumstances in terms of US Olympians that year, and there was the policy of getting as many swimmers to get medals as possible.
US Olympians in 1988 (top 2 in each stroke, usually the second qualifier swims the prelims relays):
100 back: Berkoff, Jay Mortenson
100 br: Shroeder, Watters
100 fly: Biondi, Mortenson
100 free: Biondi, Jacobs, (Jager 3rd at trials in the 100, 2nd in the 50).
There were lots of variables, especially since Mortenson and Biondi were double qualifiers, and Jacobs was at the time the 2nd… Read more »
You’ve got “Biondi” in there a couple places and I don’t think that’s what you mean…
Not sure why you are using Biondi name… “Jager and Biondi, back in the same heat: music to our eyes. ” and “Jager and Biondi both won gold medals for the 1988 medley relay”
Older brother Wyatt Jager (16) has recorded a 21.06 / 24.51 in the 50 freestyle… Cale and younger sister Katherine (12) seem to be taking after dad in the backstroke events (1:04 and 1:10 respectively)!