MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR, RUNNER-UP: John Cole, Swimming

While John Cole bowed to the Blodgett Pool crowd for the last time in February, the fans knew they were saying goodbye to a legend.

As he went to the podium to collect his fourth Phil Moriarty Award—given to the EISL meet’s top performer—the Blodgett Pool record wall cataloging the best all-time performances by Harvard swimmers hung right above him.

Maybe the crowd shouting “John Cole! John Cole!” was only reading what those records explained: that Cole has dominated Harvard, EISL, and national swimming since his arrival in Cambridge in 2000.

“It’s special to come to Harvard and excel in the swimming pool,” Cole said. “I didn’t set that goal for myself coming in freshman year. I didn’t know what to expect.”

After taking 2004 off to train for the Olympic trials, Cole re-entered, eager to bring back the EISL title.

“This year, I wanted to keep it going,” Cole added. “I set a standard for myself, and I wanted to go out on top.”

Mission accomplished. Cole capped off his 2005 EISL meet with an uncannily common, dominant performance in the distance events. In the 1,650-yard freestyle, he outpaced the field by almost 30 seconds and set a new EISL meet record. Cole won the 500-yard and 1,000-yard freestyles as well, marking the fourth time he claimed EISL titles in all three distance events. Over the course of his four years in a Harvard suit, Cole never once lost an EISL distance race. He holds Crimson and EISL records in the 500-, 1,000-, and 1,650-yard freestyles.

Simply put, Cole has been unbeatable—and it hasn’t even been close. At the 2003 EISL meet, Cole swam the 1,650-yard freestyle with a broken hand. His goggles grew uncomfortable during the race, so the first-place Cole stopped dead in the water and adjusted both his goggles and his swim cap. Yale’s Greg Palumbo passed Cole as he was treading water, but Cole overcame the deficit, and out-touched Palumbo at the wall. Broken hand and all.

“There’s no better example [of work ethic],” senior co-captain Andy Krna said after Cole’s performance at Easterns. “He trains harder than anybody in the pool, and watching somebody train and race the way he does is inspiration.”

Cole has been equally awe-inspiring on the national level, coming from a smaller Harvard program that faces off against swimming powerhouses at the NCAA Championships.

“My sophomore year, when I almost won [the 1,650],” Cole said, “one of the officials said, ‘You’re from Harvard, you’re not supposed to do that.’”

He was an All-American in his first three years at Harvard, and he placed 10th and grabbed Honorable Mention All-America honors this year.

Showered with EISL and NCAA recognition, Cole leaves Cambridge as one of the most decorated swimmers in Harvard history.

With that final, rousing chant of “John Cole!” the Crimson faithful at Blodgett Pool added yet another echo of Cole’s greatness in the pool that he made his own.

—Staff writer Aidan E. Tait can be reached at atait@fas.harvard.edu.