Swimming Lessons

By Bill Hunt

A former Olympian helps Sri Lanka’s children face the water following the 2004 tsunami.

Beginning at five every morning, Julian Bolling paces poolside at his family’s aquatic complex in Colombo, Sri Lanka, coaching a generation of the island nation’s Olympic hopefuls. At a whistle blow, they splash poolside, rapt brown eyes focused on “Coach Jubo.”

Nearly 42, Julian rarely enters the water since competing in his third Olympics at the ’92 Los Angeles games, but the young swimmers swallow every word because their coach is a legend in Sri Lanka. Julian never placed at his three Olympics, but won 15 gold medals competing at four South Asian Games. Even policemen at roadblocks still recognize him: “You’re that swimmer guy!”

It took a man with Julian’s reputation to influence a generation of children to get back in the water after the 2004 tsunami killed more than 35,000 Sri Lankans. Many died because they didn’t know how to swim, but Julian’s influence helped persuade more than 13,000 children to attend mobile swimming clinics set up on the island’s beaches.

“These kids needed to be able to survive in water,” he says. “The beach was their playground, but after the tsunami most families decided never to even walk on the beach. We helped them become familiar again with what they were used to before the tsunami.”

An outspoken believer with a compassionate heart, Julian quips that a swim instructor “saves souls from drowning.” His spiritual journey began at age 14 when he left for training in Australia with his parents’ divorce proceedings “at a point of no return.” Then Julian’s mom wrote to him that the couple were reconciling because she had become a Christian. “God did something beautiful for my family, and it opened my eyes,” Julian says. “I couldn’t run away from the incredible thing God had done in my family.”

It’s still a bit risky talking about Jesus in predominantly Buddhist Sri Lanka, where priests continue to press for laws that would make conversion a crime. About 12 of the 800 swimmers at the academy attend a weekly Bible study, and Julian looks for opportunities to tell the kids about the peace he knows. “I struggled a lot in my swimming career, highs and lows,” he says. “You realize how unworthy you are and that God is still there for you. It makes you want to know God even more.”