United States Olympic legend Michael Phelps, with his long, lean, muscular body, and dexterity with every swimming stroke, is the exact swimmer you would create in a lab.
Jenna Pappalardo, a 15-year-old rising sophomore at Jackson Memorial High School, offers the same swimmer’s body and versatility in the pool.
Her dad, Jim Pappalardo, and her coach at the Ocean County YMCA, Dave Eldridge, even compare her to Phelps without sarcasm in their voices.
“If you saw her, you’d say that’s what a swimmer looks like. Tall with a long wingspan, like Michael Phelps,” said Jim Pappalardo. “She’s got the body of a sprinter.”
“She does have that long, lanky body. A good swimmer body,” Eldridge said. “She’s got talent and she works hard year-round in the pool to do what she does.”
Pappalardo’s hard work earned her a spot in the YMCA Nationals later this month at the University of Maryland.
Her goal at nationals is to “at least make the finals in the 50 (meter) backstroke,” she said.
The backstroke is her best stroke. “I just practice it a lot,” Pappalardo said.
Pappalardo started swimming for the Ocean County Y program when she was seven, committing to an extensive practice schedule, five days a week, for an hour and a half each day.
But by age 13, she was too fast for her age group and moved up to the Senior Gold group, the oldest and fastest group, at the Ocean County Y. Pappalardo increased her practice schedule to three hours a day and became a state champion and national qualifier.
“Before that I was ok. I wasn’t that good,” Pappalardo said. “Then I started practicing really hard.”
In the two years since increasing her practice time, Pappalardo has won three New Jersey state titles in YMCA competitions. She also anchored Jackson Memorial’s 200-meter medley team that won the title at the Ocean County and the Shore Conference swim championships this past winter.
In March, at the New Jersey YMCA State Championship meet, she finished first in the the 100-meter backstroke in 56:12, setting a state record. Her other state championships came in the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle events. But Pappalardo is working diligently to achieve Phelps-like versatility.
“She’s working on getting to a national time for the butterfly as well,” said Jim Pappalardo.
“I like the breaststroke the most, but I’m better at back and free. I don’t get a lot of pressure put on me for breaststroke. I’m expected to do good in the others, so breaststroke is a break,” said Jenna. “But I’ve been practicing breaststroke and fly a lot in practice, so it would be nice to be good at all them.”
“If we can get her butterfly and breaststroke a little better, she can be a good IMer as well,” Eldridge said.
IM stands for Individual Medley, an event that combines the four main swimming styles–butterfly, freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke–into one race. Being elite in the IM is basically the highest level a swimmer can reach. Phelps and Ryan Lochte–maybe the two greatest swimmers in US history, with 40 Olympic medals between them–hold the world records in the 400 and 200-meter IM races, respectively.
Now, Pappalardo is only 15. She still has three more years of high school, even. And while she knows she wants to swim in college eventually, and become an elite IMer, she is not focused on any ultimate goals. She just wants to keep getting better.
“I just want to beat all my times,” Pappalardo said. “I feel like I’ve gotten faster from last year.”
“There really isn’t any ceiling. Who knows. It all depends on how she keeps progressing. She’s already a state champion with state records,” Eldridge said. “Just keep trying to get faster and as that happens, success comes. If you start focusing on accomplishments, it becomes overwhelming. You just want to think about what you need to do.”
