UPDATE: The following story appears in our upcoming weekend edition. Shortly after it went to print Emily Overholt capped off an incredible Pan Am Games week by winning gold in the 400-metre freestyle race, setting a new Pan Am record in the process. Here is the story of all that came before the West Vancouver teeneager's final redemption:
This week West Vancouver’s Emily Overholt went from a relatively unknown swimmer to a surprise Pan Am Games silver medalist to a tragic near-champion, all in just a few short days.
That’s quite a wild ride for a swimmer who just a few weeks ago was celebrating her high school graduation. The rollercoaster ride started Wednesday when the 17-year-old won silver in women’s 200-metre freestyle swimming at the Pan Am Games in Toronto, outracing all but Olympic champion Allison Schmitt of the United States in a world-class field. Schmitt won gold in a Pan Am Games record time of 1:56.23 while Overholt parlayed a blazing start into a comfortable second place finish in a personal best time of 1:57.55. It was her first ever 200-m freestyle race in a senior international competition.
The Overholt breakthrough appeared to go into overdrive on Thursday when the teenager — the youngest member of Canada’s swim team at the Pan Am Games — out-touched Caitlin Leverenz of the U.S. at the wall to finish first in the 400-m individual medley. A few moments later, however, her joy turned to bitter disappointment in a scene that played out on live television. Overholt had just finished an interview with CBC’s poolside reporter David Amber, receiving congratulations on her new Canadian and Pan Am Games records, when Swimming Canada communications manager Nathan White lightly tapped her on the shoulder and directed her attention to the scoreboard, which now listed her not at the top as the gold medal winner but at the bottom, disqualified.
“Wait, what?” Overholt said, before being whisked away to learn more about her unfortunate fate. The verdict: a judge ruled that Overholt had performed an illegal turn, using a “non-simultaneous touch” during the breaststroke leg of the medley. Overholt had never before been disqualified from a race during her young racing career.
Swimming Canada launched an appeal but the disqualification was upheld. In a strange twist, the men’s 400-m individual medley winner — 21-time Pan Am medalist Thiago Pereira of Brazil — was disqualified for the exact same infraction.
Watching this all unfold was a large gathering of the Overholt family, including Emily’s father Carman, mother Deborah, older brother Andrew and younger brother Marcus, along with several other assorted aunts, uncles and grandparents.
They, too, took a rapid ride on an emotional rollercoaster.
“The word to use is deflating,” said Carman when reached by the North Shore News the day after the race. “It was one of her best swims and we were thrilled for her.... (We were) disappointed with the outcome but respectful of the official call.”
Emily’s day was far from over though. She came back out just a short time later to swim the opening leg of the 4x200-m freestyle relay, staking Canada to an early lead that was soon gobbled up by the United States and Brazil. Canada finished third, giving Overholt her second medal of the Games. The young swimmer then addressed the media, responding to the disqualification.
“To be honest it’s all a blur,” she told CBC when asked about the touch that earned her the DQ. “I don’t really remember too much from the race. The official saw it — I have to trust that they did.”
Overholt’s willingness to address the issue and resilience in putting in another strong performance in the relay drew praise from a number of onlookers, including Swimming Canada high-performance director John Atkinson.
“That shows the character of the young lady, that she had that happen, dust yourself down and get back up for the relay, lead the relay off in the manner that she did,” Atkinson said in an interview with the Canadian Press.
It was a tough night for Overholt’s parents who exchanged a few texts with their daughter but couldn’t go meet her at the Athlete’s Village.
“I must say it was a time when I was struggling because I wanted to be with her and to be able to console her and support her but it just couldn’t happen,” said Carman, adding that he too was greatly impressed with the way Emily responded to the situation. “She really handled all of it in really quite a mature and elegant way. I have to say I just think for her to have to face the media and conduct interviews under those circumstances was just extraordinary and I thought she really handled it very, very well.”
Emily’s Pan Am Games experience isn’t over yet. This morning she qualified for the 400-m freestyle final, a race scheduled for 4:52 p.m. Pacific time Friday evening. That race will be her last Pan Am event, but next week she’ll hit an even bigger stage, taking part in her first senior FINA World Aquatic Championships running July 24-Aug. 9 in Kazan, Russia.
After that the Collingwood School grad and former member of the West Vancouver Otters Swim Club will spend a year prepping for the 2016 Olympic Games before joining the vaunted University of British Columbia swim team in the fall of 2016. By that time this disqualification may just be a small blip on an already stellar swimming career that seems destined for even bigger things.
“She clearly has set some lofty goals for herself,” Carman said, adding that he doesn’t think the disqualification will slow her down one bit. “She has a very quiet determination and very clear focus…. When you face challenges in life like this — and this was a big one for Emily — the measure of a person is how they respond. She responded in a way that makes me very proud.”
