An Enthusiastic Gathering For All Involved
Van Dyken just as thrilled to meet current roster as they were to meet her
Mike Brohard
Eventually, they find out.
Maybe when they signed, somebody made a casual comment. Or when they first arrived at Moby Pool and started to read the names on the wall, one of which stood out a bit more prominently than the others.
NCAA champion, the only one in program history. Amy Van Dyken, 1994. It would be two years later when the Colorado native would take the world by storm, becoming the first American woman swimmer to win four golds in a single Olympic Games while in Atlanta in 1996.
You know, before anybody on the current Colorado State swimming roster was born.
“I actually didn't find out until I was on campus, and I saw Amy Van Dyken Way over by the Nutrien building, and then I saw her name on our All-American board, and I was, who is that?” senior captain Claire Wright said. “So I went home, looked it up, and saw her story, and I felt really inspired. Hey, we had an incredible athlete come through our program, and I don't know, it just, it really inspired me.”
What they find even better is the graciousness Van Dyken extends to them whenever she gets in front of the team, a group she refers to as “my girls” all these years later. To the six-time Olympic gold medalist, she is a Ram, through and through. They are Rams.
In her eyes, they are the same.
“Absolutely, because they are my girls, you know? I mean, they came to school, and they saw my name, and they're a part of CSU Ram history, and so am I. And so they're my girls, right?” Van Dyken said. “I kind of feel like a mother figure, almost to the point where at the swimming pool, I was, ‘make sure you warm down,’ and I'm like, no, that's not your responsibility, Amy. So, yeah, they are my girls, and I love them very much, and I watch what they do all the time. You know, it's fun to be able to meet them.”
Van Dyken returned to campus for her induction into the Ring of Honor. Friday, a banner was dropped for her at Moby Arena, and Saturday, the same was done at Moby Pool, a place she always acknowledges as her turning point.
She was done with swimming, left Arizona and enrolled at Colorado State intent on becoming a biology teacher and working with the hearing impaired. A chance run-in with then swimming coach John Mattos changed her trajectory.
It’s a moment in time she still blesses this day and will every day forward.
“Every time I pull out a credit card,” she quipped. “You know what I mean? I think about it a lot. I really do because I wouldn't have what I have now without him.”
I didn't know what to expect meeting her and it felt really impactful and really meaningful, and I'm really glad I got to have that experience, to meet her and speak with her.Claire Wright
Mattos said he’d pay for her school the entire year if she gave it a chance. Even just one semester. They clicked and her passion for the sport came back. So did the wins. She won the 50-yard freestyle at the NCAA Championships and set an American record.
A star was reborn. In Atlanta, she became the first American woman to win four golds in the pool at a single Olympics, since matched by fellow Coloradoan Missy Franklin (2012) and Katie Ledecky (2016).
Van Dyken won two more in Sydney in 2000. It was then she started to notice people wanted to be around her, meet her, take a photo, ask for advice or inspiration. She embraced the role, never forgetting her path to the spotlight.
At Friday’s basketball game, she welcomed a steady flow of admirers. Each time, she asked for their name, their story, then smiled and took a photo. A few hours prior, she had the chance to meet with some members of the team, taking the chance to blend her time at Colorado State with theirs.
A few years ago, when Lexie Trietley beat one of her Moby Pool records, Van Dyken took the time to make a call and congratulate her. That night, they finally met in person.
“It was really awesome, and she was super, super nice and encouraging. She made it seem like she was as excited to meet me as I was to meet her, so that was really cool too, that she recognized my face and my voice from the call,” Trietley said. “She was just super cool to me, and she told us a couple stories, and I liked hearing those.”
Coming from New York, Trietley had never heard the name until she told her father she was going to commit to Colorado State, and he mentioned Van Dyken had been a Ram.
An internet search gave them a clue to the greatness. Then they’d start to dive deeper. Watch some of her swims and see the emotion. After a while, she seemed larger than life.
Then they meet her and find she is full of life, speaks freely as if she’s one of the girls. In her mind, she still is, and that comes across. Meeting a hero can be daunting, just not in this instance.
“I think I've come to idolize her a little bit more as I feel a connection with her as a CSU athlete,” Wright said. “It was just really cool to meet her and get to share that with her. It was incredible. I didn't know what to expect meeting her and it felt really impactful and really meaningful, and I'm really glad I got to have that experience, to meet her and speak with her. I feel I learned a little bit more about her as well. When I was a little kid, I got to meet Jason Lezak, and so it was sort of a similar thing.”
Emotion doesn’t always come easy to Van Dyken, but the weekend turned into a blur of tears and gratitude. Yes, she’s in the Hall of Fame and has a street on campus named after her. But the university, like Van Dyken herself, never forgets.
“It was everything. You know, I don't cry easily,” she said. “And so for me to get on the basketball court and at the swimming pool and to have tears, it says a lot about what it means to me, because this school, CSU, has given me everything.
“If I wouldn't have transferred and gone to CSU, and if I wouldn't have run into John Mattos at orientation, I would not be talking to you about this. I would probably be working in a high school somewhere as happy as can be. But CSU gave me everything, and so for them to acknowledge that they appreciated what I did really means a lot to me. And it really is hard to articulate.”
When fame came to her in the pool, Van Dyken embraced the chance to promote her sport and help it grow. She continues the work to this day as an announcer during the preliminary sessions at the Olympic Games.
When Van Dyken was injured in an ATV accident in 2014, one which left her paralyzed from the waist down, instantly, she became a crusader for those with disabilities, a fact some of the swimmers admire just as much.
And she did it while remaining true to herself.
“That's exactly what I thought. I'm going to be me,” she said. “I'm going to do it in a different way, focus my direction, you know, a little bit, maybe more to the left than I thought I would go. But I think it's wonderful. And even here in the airport, I ran into someone else in a wheelchair who we both know what each other does online. And so we connected that way.
“I just think that it's special. And I do think that a lot of able-bodied people want to know what we have to deal with, and so to be able to put that out there and maybe help somebody else out who doesn't know how to treat someone in a wheelchair or with one arm or who's blind, that is my responsibility now, and I take it on with a great deal of pride.”
Which is exactly how she views her time at Colorado State, with or without the banners.
Support Colorado State Athletics: Tickets | Ram Club | CSU NIL Marketplace