SARASOTA, Fla. — With Team USA already dazzling in Paris and bringing home medals, you may be wondering where all these Olympic athletes are training. One organization helping mold Olympic champions is right here in the Tampa Bay area — the Sarasota Sharks.
The nonprofit boasts it has been "developing champions since 1961." It operates out of the Selby Aquatic Center and not only trains Olympians and world-class swimmers but also provides a swimming school for children.
Summer McIntosh, the Canadian phenom and current 400-meter world record holder, trains with the Sarasota Sharks. The 17-year-old just won her first Olympic gold medal for the women's 400m individual medley, the event she holds the world record for. McIntosh also captured the silver medal during the women's 400-meter freestyle event.
The Sarasota Sharks also have a notable alumni in Paris, too — Sarasota native Emma Weyant. According to the Sarasota County, Weyant, who won her first Olympic medal in Tokoyo, has trained with them in the past. Weyant currently swims with the Gator Swim Club at the University of Florida.
Weyant has also medaled in Paris, taking home the bronze medal behind McIntosh and fellow Team USA member Katie Grimes, who won silver.
But McIntosh and Weyant aren't the only Olympians and world record holders to come out of the Sarasota Sharks organization.
Kim Linehan once held the title of the world's top distance freestyler in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During her career, she broke two world records, the 400-meter freestyle in 1978 and the 1,500 in 1979. She won the World title in 1982 for the 800-meter freestyle and competed in both the 1980 and 1984 Olympics.
Tripp Schwenk competed in two Olympics, in 1992 and 1996, and won a gold and silver medal at the latter. He would later become a K-9 police officer in Sarasota, according to the Olympics.