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By SARAH HOYE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 10, 2007

Updated: 12/09/2007 11:23 pm

Golda Marcus In Training

Kick. Stroke.

Golda Marcus dug her cupped hands into the water, effortlessly gliding through the pool during a recent swim practice at the Brandon Sports & Aquatic Center.

She shared a lap lane with her younger brother, Evan, their brown bodies slicing through the aqua liquid. Her movements are mechanical and precise.

Golda Marcus moved on to the backstroke, her muscular arms aptly pulling her in reverse. She approached the wall for a flip turn without needing to glance backward.

"I've been swimming my whole life," she said. "The pool is the only place I know and feel the most comfortable."

The 24-year-old started swimming with her mother as a toddler, joined a swim club team by the age of 5 and is now training for her second Olympic games next summer in Beijing.

As two of three adopted siblings from Central America in her family, Marcus and her brother will represent their home countries, El Salvador and Guatemala respectively, at the upcoming Olympics if they qualify at the trials. Both are distance swimmers, competing in the 400-, 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle events.

Growing up Hispanic within a Jewish family living in Coral Springs was nothing like navigating the pool lanes. Unable to speak Spanish and often wondering where she fit in, she sometimes struggled with her cultural identity.

She knows only a few details about her family history: she was born during a civil war; her biological mother was 13; and her biological father was a 16-year-old soldier. She was one of the last war orphans to make it out of the country.

"There were difficulties, especially for Golda," says her foster mother, Sharon, a retired school teacher who raised the children with her sister, Barbara. "They didn't want to be different, they wanted to be American."

When Golda was 17, Sharon needed a kidney transplant, forcing her to take on extra responsibilities at home. She even debated quitting swimming.

But it was around the same time that she received word she could swim competitively for El Salvador, and if she trained rigorously there was a chance she could make it to the Olympics.

Her lifelong dream.

"I wasn't getting anywhere with the U.S. teams. I was getting frustrated and everything was a big jumble," she laments. "Deciding was a deal for me. I was told all my life I was from El Salvador, but all I knew was life in the U.S."

After talking things over with her family and with reassurance from her future coach, Oscar Moreno, she decided to go for it. She graduated high school in May 2001, enrolled at Florida State University and trained with its swim team.

That November she competed in the Central American Games as an official member of the El Salvadoran swim team. The shy, humble swimmer walked away with seven gold medals and two silver medals - the most any El Salvadoran athlete has ever won.

"I don't like to be noticed, but every time I won, the cameras would follow me. I was instantly famous," she says. "Here, I get back and no one knows who I am. And it's perfectly OK with me, I don't mind being in the shadows."

In her time with the El Salvadoran team she competed in a litany of major games, including the Central American and Caribbean Games, World Championships, the Pan Am Games and her coveted Olympics in 2004.

"It was the greatest thing since adopting them," Sharon says of her daughter going to the Olympics. "If you want something bad enough you can achieve it."

That also means you have to do work. Marcus, who is currently working on her master's degree in English and creative writing online through National University, attends practice with the Blue Wave swim team twice a day, averaging 20 hours of swimming a week.

"She is very determined and has a great work ethic. She knows what she wants to do," said Blue Wave coach Peter Banks, who first coached Marcus in South Florida before the family relocated to Valrico in 2005. He also has coached Tampa Bay area Olympic gold medalist Brooke Bennett and silver medalist Maritza Correia. "She is pretty quiet, and not very outgoing. She's not one to be vocal other than when she's in the water."

She and Evan, who is on leave from the University of Southern California so he can train in Brandon, are in the pool from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. They return for a dry land strength workout from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and are back in the pool from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

"Swimming for them El Salvador, and seeing the country and the poverty and comparing that to what I have and what I could have had, makes me appreciate my life," she says. "Any person will tell you, to get up there at any games and wear your country's flag is a big honor, no matter where you're from."

She plans to stop swimming competitively after the summer Olympics with hopes to coach and perhaps swim open water for El Salvador. Until then, it's back to the pool. Kick. Stroke.

TBO Keyword: Swimmer, for video of what it takes to swim for your dreams. Reporter Sarah Hoye can be reached at (813) 259-7832 or shoye@tampatrib.com.

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