Columnist Ron Kantowski: UNLV had an early dip in the Phelps family gene pool

Friday, Aug. 27, 2004 | 10:08 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Under the "personal" part of her 1998-99 UNLV swimming media guide bio, it says Whitney Phelps, a butterfly and individual medley specialist from Baltimore, "has one brother ..."

I'll say.

While it has been a little while since Michael Phelps, the most amazing thing to hit the water since The Incredible Mr. Limpet, was best known as Whitney Phelps' kid brother, it seems like yesterday to UNLV swimming coach Jim Reitz.

Actually, it was 1998. When he made the trip back east to sign his sister to a UNLV scholarship, Reitz recalls shaking hands with her gangling 12-year-old sibling, who even then had broad shoulders and a wingspan like a DC-10.

"He was just a boy then and he wasn't a fanatical swimmer," Reitz recalled of Michael Phelps, who won more swimming medals (eight) than 17 entire countries in Athens. "He was goofing around with other sports but that's probably what allowed him to maintain his purity and his strokes."

His sister, on the other hand, had a world ranking as a 13-year-old.

"Training at that level all the way through puberty, she hurt her back and had to retire," Reitz said. "But we took a chance on her and she won the Mountain West Conference championship for us in the 200 butterfly (in 2000)."

Like virtually every swimmer Reitz recruits, Whitney Phelps was a good student and an even better competitor. She had to be, Reitz said, to swim through the constant back pain that curtailed her career.

Even though she couldn't complete her college career, Reitz honored her scholarship and made her an assistant coach so she could finish her studies. When I asked Reitz what Phelps was doing now, he jokingly asked if my TV set was broken.

"You've probably seen her 50 times in the last two weeks," he said. "She was the one next to her mom, jumping up and down."

That in itself, Reitz said, speaks volumes about Whitney Phelps' character.

"I know she has to be hurting right now but I never met a tougher kid," he said. "She was at least as talented as Michael. She would have been one of the top few Americans. So for her to have to sit there and watch as her brother is doing all this neat stuff would chew up most people."

Whitney Phelps was a member of the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, which won every national club championship from 1988-98. She was the Maryland Age Group Swimmer of the Year dating to 1989. In 1996, as a 16-year-old, she made the 100 butterfly finals at the U.S. Olympic Trials, a year after she was ranked first in the U.S. and third in the world in her age group.

Reitz, who has been UNLV coach for so long (24 years) that the chlorine in the Buchanan Natatorium has bleached his hair from light brown to silver, said some of his best recruits have been the ones that have followed a sibling to campus.

So had Michael Phelps elected to swim in college, maybe it would have been right here. But it wouldn't have been the first time one of Reitz's swimmers went on to the Olympics. Four years ago at Sydney there were seven former Rebels in the pool, while Andrew Livingston (representing Puerto Rico) and Mike Mintenko (Canada) made it to Athens this year.

"You never know when a kid is 12 if he is even going to be in the sport," Reitz said, "and we didn't give her brother a second thought at the time, other than I know their family were all talented athletes (older sister Hillary, the other Phelps' sibling, swam at the University of Richmond). Besides, he was too young to recruit.

"But ... we've had a few sister-brother combinations. So I would like to think that Michael would have given us a look if he hadn't turned pro."

Swimming is one of those sports that only floats into the public consciousness every four years but as I mentioned to Reitz, I think the last time we spoke Mark Spitz still had his mustache. I recalled doing a piece on the cracks on the bottom of the pool at Buchanan, which since have become chasms.

"It's nice to be able to swim outside," Reitz joked, adding that he hoped the current pool liner would hold up for at least a couple of more years.

I have a feeling that had Michael Phelps decided to follow his sister to UNLV, the facilities might be getting a face-lift right about now.