8/9/2016 10:44:00 AM | General, Men's Swimming and Diving
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By: Jason Hove
Dean Ekeren's life these days is immersed in water.
As national events director for USA Swimming, Ekeren, a 1986 graduate of South Dakota State University and a former Jackrabbit swimming student-athlete, helps oversee a number of high-level competitions.Dean Ekeren stands next to a giant flip-flop signed by all U.S. swimmers who qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
"We manage all the major national competitions in the country, so our national championships, U.S. Open, Junior Nationals, as well as any international competitions that we hold in the United States," said Ekeren, who competed in the butterfly and middle distance freestyle events for the Jackrabbits.
Earlier this summer, Ekeren was on deck in Omaha for the organization's marquee event, the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, where he took time out of his schedule to discuss his path from a youth swimmer in Yankton to a collegiate swimmer at SDSU to the position he holds today.
"I had such a great time swimming and competing at SDSU that as I got a little closer to graduation I had a little change of career plans and thought I would like to get into swim coaching for a while," said Ekeren, who graduated from SDSU with degrees in biology and animal science. "I went to Oklahoma State to pursue my master's in exercise physiology with that in mind, maybe coach for a few years and then get back into the animal science industry. But kind of one thing led to another; it was a whole lot of right place at the right time kind of things for me."
It was while first serving as a coach with a club team based out the University of Texas, and later working in facility management at both Texas and Texas A&M that Ekeren made the connections that led to what is now a 16-year career with Colorado Springs-based USA Swimming.
A big part of the recent high-level exposure given to the Olympic Trials can be attributed to a formula that Ekeren and his USA Swimming team developed early in his tenure with the organization. The 2000 Olympic Trials in Indianapolis — at the same IUPUI facility that annually hosts the Summit League Championships in which SDSU competes — couldn't accommodate the large crowds despite being the biggest traditional natatorium in the country.
The solution literally required some outside-the-box thinking as the 2004 Olympic Trials were held outdoors in a temporary pool at the Long Beach Convention Center in California. Four years later, the bid for the Olympic Trials was awarded to Omaha, where it returned in both 2012 and 2016.
"We've gone on the road and kind of looked at many venues, arenas around the country and convention centers and we keep coming back to Omaha. It is just the perfect setup for us — not only the venue, but the Omaha community is very, very supportive; they come out in droves to this event," Ekeren said. "Besides the College World Series, we're not competing with any professional teams or any other major events, so when we come to Omaha we kind of own the community for the time that we're here."
Converting Omaha's CenturyLink Center into a natatorium over a two-week period is no small undertaking. Two temporary 50-meter pools are constructed — a competition pool in the arena and a warm-up pool in the adjacent convention center — with a large-scale decking system built around the pool while maintaining a seating capacity of about 12,000. In fact, the starting blocks for the middle two lanes of the competition pool are in about the exact location of the basketball standard and at nearly the same height of the rim — 10 feet.
"Since this is our third time back, we just get a little bit better, a little more efficient each time," Ekeren said.
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Having the Olympic Trials in Omaha has allowed Ekeren to maintain some of his collegiate connections, including calling upon former teammate and longtime Pierre Swim Team coach Kent Huckins to assist with medal ceremonies.
While Ekeren played a role in getting the likes of U.S. swimming superstars Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps on the Road to Rio, he is not in the organization's contingent attending the Olympic Games. Instead, Ekeren will head to another tropical location – Hawaii – later this month for the 2016 Junior Pan Pacific Championships.
"I'll spend another week in Maui instead of going to Rio, which is OK with me," Ekeren said, referencing questions over Rio's preparedness for hosting the Olympics, as well as health-related concerns over the Zika virus and contaminated water at several venues, including the site of the open water swimming championships. "I don't typically go to the Games because we always have some junior competitions going on at that same time."
Shortly after the Rio Olympics end and Ekeren wraps up his duties in Hawaii, he will return to Colorado Springs and begin planning for the 2020 Olympic Trials leading up to that year's games in Tokyo. Should the Olympic Trials return to Omaha, Ekeren would like to see more from his home state take part in a unique experience.
"It would be fun to get some of the clubs around South Dakota to bus it down and expose them to what swimming can be, especially since we've got a couple of South Dakota kids that have made it on to this meet over the past few years," Ekeren said. "It's possible coming out of South Dakota to make it to Olympic Trials."
While no Jackrabbits qualified for the 2016 Olympic Trials, Ekeren has crossed paths in recent years with several former SDSU swimmers whose children have competed in USA Swimming-sanctioned events, including the Olympic Trials.
An even larger prize could be on the horizon should efforts ramp up for a possible bid by Los Angeles for the 2024 Olympic Games.
"If it gets a little further down the road we will definitely get more involved," Ekeren said. "Right now, it is pretty much at the (United States Olympic Committee) level. We did have the USOC Board of Directors and the leadership of LA 2024 here (in Omaha) for a few days and looking at what the potential is for Los Angeles. Hopefully that will happen and we'll have a pretty significant role in hosting that event, as well."
Ekeren's success within USA Swimming opened the door for him to take on a leadership role in another area of sporting interest as he was named to the board of directors for USA Taekwondo in January 2014.
"I studied taekwondo for several years and USA Taekwondo was restructuring a few years back and looking for some (national governing board) expertise," Ekeren said. "It's been a good experience for me because USA Swimming has been one of the more successful governing bodies and taekwondo for a long time was at the other end of the spectrum. It's been fun to see things from a different perspective in Olympic sports and the struggles they have, not only locally, but on the international level. I've enjoyed my involvement in trying to turn that around and get them on a little better track."
Now, 30 years after his graduation from SDSU, Ekeren continues to reflect fondly on his time as a Jackrabbit and the foundation it provided.
"It was overall just a great experience for me," he said. "It was a life-changer for me."
