Mark will be doing the 10km open water swimming marathon in Beijing. This is the first time the event has been done at the Olympics.
Stats:
- CLUB: Santa Barbara Swim Club (SBSC-CA)
- DOB: Nov 14, 1979
- HEIGHT: 6' 2" (188.0 cm)
- WEIGHT: 185 lbs (83.9 kg)
- HOMETOWN: Santa Barbara, Calif.
- BIRTHPLACE: Santa Barbara, Calif.
- COACHED BY: John Dussliere
Personal Notes:
- High School: San Marcos HS '98
- College: USC '03
- College Major: Communication
- Future Professional Aspirations: Possibly coaching if he chooses not to follow in the family business
- Job Outside of Swimming: Works with his father in property management and real estate development
- Parents: John and Marjolein; father is a real estate developer and manager, and mother is a homemaker; John was a decathlete in the 1960s and 70s; graduated from Fresno State and continued to pursue the sport after college; won the national title in 1967 and 1971, and narrowly missed making the Olympic Team
- Spouse: Wife (Diana) is a Christian preschool teacher; they were married Sept. 20, 2003
- Sibling(s): Older sister (Kara) attended USC and was an All-American tennis player; younger brother (Paul) attended Arizona and also played tennis
- Started Swimming: At age 2; "I made a serious commitment when I was 13 with Larry Liebowitz."
- Sports Played Before Swimming: Basketball and soccer
- Hobbies Outside the Pool: Plants trees; "I love avocado and citrus trees. I've planted about 60 of them over the past few years at my parents' 13-acre property."
- Hobbies Outside the Pool: announcing swim meets; official announcer at UCSB; also announcer at USC swim meets and various club meets
- works at his church as a volunteer in the children's ministry with "AWANA"
- Ultimate Way to Relax: Watching TV with his wife
- Sponsor(s): TYR
- Training Stats: Trains mostly on his own at home in Santa Barbara or in Colorado Springs
- "I do an enormous amount of pulling, but very little swimming. I do a lot of cardiovascular dryland."
- Considers open water swimming to be his second chance at a swimming career; "I got into Open Water swimming because I wanted to make the National Team in any event. I realized that the 25k was the easiest race to make the National Team and so I pursued Open Water Swimming. The Olympics were not my goal, the goal was simply to be on the National Team. Once I had success in 2006 I started to realize the potential for the Olympics in the 10k and I rearranged my life to make the Olympic Dream a reality."
- Swam with Lenny Krazleberg, Brad Bridgewater, Lindsay Benko, Erik Vendt, Klete Keller, and Kalyn Keller during college
- swam with Ryk Neethling, Adam Ritter, and Lacey Nymeyer after college
- Favorites:
- Movie: Chariots of Fire
- t.v. show: Lost
- music: Jeremy Camp, Newsboys, Audio Adrenaline