Paul Asaro has overcome many challenges to achieve success and happiness.

Recently, in sports competition, Paul won gold and silver medals at the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games in Florida. He earned gold in men’s open water swimming, posting a time of 36 minutes, 6.6 seconds for more than 1,000 meters. He claimed silver in the men’s triathlon (440-yard swim, 10.8-mile bike ride and 3.1-mile run) in one hour, 33 minutes, 35.4 seconds.

When Paul returned home to Westchester County, he draped the medals around his neck to showcase his achievements for fellow parishioners at his church. For several decades, he has been an inspiration to adults and children at his place of worship and also within his community.

The 43-year-old has been involved with Special Olympics in the Hudson Valley as an athlete since 1994 and as a coach since 2008. Paul was named 2005 New York State Male Athlete of the Year and 2017 Hudson Valley Male Athlete of the Year. He has represented the United States at the 2003 World Games in Ireland and the 2019 World Games in the United Arab Emirates. Paul also has held several New York executive positions with Special Olympics.

Paul was born with duodenal atresia, a blockage between his duodenum and small intestine that led to complications with brain swelling and lack of oxygen to the brain. Despite this significant challenge at the start of his life, Paul was attracted to sports as a child. He participated in the Eastchester Youth Soccer League and was a distance runner in the track program at Eastchester High School. He was nominated for the school’s 1995 Athlete of the Year.

Paul never has allowed his disability to prevent him from enjoying life. An important part of his life is a passion for service. He is a volunteer firefighter. At his church, Paul is an altar server, usher, member of the Knights of Columbus and member of the parish council.

Though dealt a tough hand at birth, throughout the years Paul has met many challenges with his own personal philosophy: “There is always a path that makes us happy.”

Though we have heard a lot about sharks off our shores this summer, those sea monsters don’t seem to concern Lori King. Originally from Pennsylvania, she is a public health researcher who lives with her husband and children in Rockville Centre. Just a few months ago, on June 5, she may have learned that 14 hours and 38 minutes of battling man o’ war, jellyfish and other obstacles in Hawaii’s shark-infested Kaiwi Channel just may be easier than life on land.

Lori’s grueling freestyle swim started on the Hawaiian island of Molokai and ended at Oahu. When she arrived, she had completed one of open-water swimming’s most difficult challenges. Lori became just the 86th person to complete the adventure. Hundreds more have failed to finish the route.

Lori took to the water when she was five years old. She swam competitively in high school and continued at La Salle University in Philadelphia. She took a break from the training and competition for about 10 years and then decided to jump back in and conquer open-water swimming.

Following several years of preparation, Lori was ready for the Hawaii challenge only to be stopped by the pandemic shutdowns. When the challenge opened again this year, Lori immediately took to the water for the opportunity to complete the 26-mile route.

Besides the previously mentioned obstacles, Lori had to fight the current, forcing her to actually swim 30 miles to Oahu. Then, there were the channel swimming rules. She could not wear any suit or apply any substance that retained body heat or increased buoyancy. No one was permitted to aid her during the swim. The challenge would have been nullified if Lori clung to a boat at any time or received any assistance. A boat was with her for safety precautions and she was allowed, according to the rules, a powder and water substance for hydration and energy every 30 minutes that was provided via a feed line from the boat.

During the swim, jellyfish stung Lori and she was strafed by a man o’ war. No sharks were sighted. She would have been pulled immediately from the water and her swim cancelled if any circled the area.

Now that the Hawaii challenge box has been checked, Lori is considering swims in Gibraltar and Greece. One friend believes Lori can conquer these challenges, too, because she has fortitude and she is fast and fearless.

Though it’s summer, Curran Skoglund is out of the pool. Competitively, that is.

Curran comes from a swimming family, but at an early age he preferred to become a runner. Eventually, though, he caught on and caught up for the time he missed in the pool, becoming one of the top swimmers in New York State Section 1. Curran swam for Suffern High School in Rockland County. He was team captain during senior year, graduating with a 3.84 grade point average and with countless strokes to the honor roll.

The swimmer still likes to run, and he treads the land as much as he plies the water. Curran was team captain of his school’s cross-country team during his senior year. As a volunteer firefighter, I guess he also knows how to combine land with water.

Curran believes in keeping a solid and organized schedule to balance his studies, sports activities and life. He just plans each day be telling himself that he will have a good day. He gives each day everything he can and does his best during each moment.

Now that his next step is college, Curran’s focus is to become an athletic trainer. He also hopes to join the school’s swim and/or track teams.

While waiting to start his higher education, Curran recently provided some advice to future Rockland high school scholar-athletes: “Put in the work. For me, that’s always how it’s been. Try your best. Don’t go halfway, if you really want it, you gotta own it and go for it.”

The last year affected high school sports across the country. Games on the field, on the court and on the ice were postponed, rescheduled or cancelled. The pool, too, was not immune to the effects of the virus.

The girls swim team at Our Lady of Lourdes High School is grateful to nearby Beacon High School. The latter opened its pool to swimmers from four Dutchess County high schools while many schools and colleges closed pools to outsiders.

“From the bottom of my heart thank you very much” [for saving the season], said Lourdes senior swimmer Katie Thorn about Beacon’s coaches and school officials. “I don’t think they understand how much it meant to us to swim again. The swim team is like a family.”

Girls swimming is a fall sport in New York. The season was moved to March as schedules were juggled due to the pandemic. Lourdes competes in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association. The team was permitted 90 minutes for practices or meets six days per week at the public high school. Quarantine for an extended period always was a concern but the team avoided this obstacle.

The six days in the water provided the girls with some sense of normalcy during this unusual time. While the Warriors lost the first four meets, the team completed the dual-meet season with a 4-6 record.

All dual and invitational swimming meets were conducted virtually. Masks were worn until swimmers were on the starting blocks. Swimmers competed in their home pools with times entered into a computer system to determine individual and team winners. The season allowed four Lourdes swimmers to qualify for individual events and the Lourdes relays at the Section 1 championships.

“It was an odd season,” concluded one-time Lourdes swimmer and third-year head coach Tom Bubel. A very common statement during an unusual year that has been repeated thousands of times nationwide by athletes, parents, coaches and officials.

Few have heard about Adolph Kiefer. He passed away last month but he left a considerable mark in competitive swimming and with the U.S. Navy.

Adolph was a celebrated swimming champion who won gold with a world-record time as a teenager at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He reached his peak several years later, and he could have been one of America’s greatest Olympic swimmers. But, World War II took over the world and canceled the 1940 and 1944 Olympics. The war, though, provided Adolph with his greatest satisfaction. His work saved the lives of many U.S. sailors.

Adolph entered the service during 1942 as a naval officer specialist in the physical fitness and swimming division. He quickly was appalled at the number of sailors whose deaths were attributed to drowning. More men died by drowning than gunfire.

With the approval of superiors, Adolph organized swimming and lifesaving instruction for every sailor. No one was permitted to board a ship without taking the 21-hour course. Adolph also helped design lifesaving equipment and created the victory backstroke—with arms extended over the head to form a “V”—that many sailors adopted when they found themselves in the water.

Ironically, Adolph’s career began with a near-drowning accident. He fell into an ice-cold Chicago drainage canal as a child. He did not swim, so he rolled on his back and began kicking his feet until he reached land. Immediately, he enrolled for swimming lessons at the Y.M.C.A. He became devoted to the sport and a champion backstroke swimmer.

A newspaper reporter at the Berlin Olympics wrote that no one who saw him swim could deny that Adolph was the greatest backstroke swimmer. About a decade ago, another sportswriter indicated that Adolph was to the backstroke what Pablo Casals was to the cello.

The cello, as far as I know, never saved a person’s life. The dedication of Adolph Kiefer, however, saved the lives of many American sailors. He faced a challenge as a child and learned from it. His path to fame was blocked by war, but he turned that obstacle into what he cconsidered his “greatest thrill.”

Two innovative coaches left us this year. Each leaves behind a wonderful legacy and valuable life lessons for all of us.

Forbes Carlile was from Australia. His innovative ideas about sports physiology made him one of the world’s best-known swimming coaches. Dating back to the 1940s, his career is credited with producing many Australian Olympians. He coaching methods, believing that swimmers should start high-level competition at a young age, sent shock waves through swimming traditionalists.

Carlile decided that two leg kicks for two arm strokes (verses the conventional six kicks) saved energy. He also believed, again unconventional, that hot baths or showers before a race improved finish times by 1.5 percent, shaving almost a second in a 100-meter race (the difference between first and second place). He introduced interval training (alternating between activities that required different rates of speed and various levels of exertion) and advocated for year-round training that emphasized long-distance workouts.

Carlile originally planned to become a doctor. He changed his mind when he became ill while watching a film about an operation. He then studied human physiology and became dedicated to the science of swimming.

Closer to home, Ed Temple produced 40 Olympians for women’s track and field at Tennessee State. His athletes won 13 gold medals, six silver medals and four bronze medals. His teams won 34 national titles.

In his first year as coach, with a budget of $300, Temple’s team participated in one meet. A few years later, to get his runners to a competition in New York, the coach piled the team into his old DeSoto station wagon.

Temple was the team coach, trainer, counselor and parent. “I was everything,” he said a few years ago, “but you had to be, because there was no other person there.”

Temple’s teams were composed of more than just athletes. He always told the girls that they were young ladies and should carry themselves properly. He always reminded them that they were ladies first and runners second.

Temple also told the ladies on each of his teams that they should use track as an exchange for an education. Track, according to the coach, was the means to walk across the stage to receive a degree.

“Athletics opens up doors for you,” said the coach, “but education keeps them open.”

Pool water is in his blood and soul. It has been since he was a kid on Long Island.

Roger Kahn was an all-state swimmer for Hewlett High School and he broke records at Penn State. From there, he has never stopped swimming. When he turned 45, he won a Masters national championship in the 50-meter freestyle.

During 2013, Roger was named an All-American in the 200 medley relay for his age group. The relay team was ranked number one in the U.S. and number three in the world. Roger’s part in the relay also was ranked one and three, respectively.

Just last year, as he moved closer to 60, he competed in the 50-meter freestyle and the 50-meter butterfly, along with a couple of relays, during the U.S. Masters Swimming Summer National Championship. Now, as he prepares for this year’s event, he has graduated from the 55-59 age group to join the 60-64 class.

He considers the change as just one advantage to getting a little older. He feels that the younger a swimmer is in an age group, the better the chance of winning a medal. He said the faster guys are the younger guys.

Roger, who owns a business in Garden City, is married with two children. Yet, with all the work and family issues to manage, he still adheres to his training schedule. He takes a training dip for an hour four times each week. He does a half-hour of dry-land exercises three days each week. Years of dedication helps him compete successfully against swimmers who can afford to spend more time in the pool.

One of the best tributes of Roger came from a friend who is the director at the pool where the swimmer trains: “Not only does he maintain a level of excellence…he’s been a great model for other people to stay dedicated.”

According to Roger, the focus required first to achieve success as a young student-athlete and then as a business executive helps provide balance in life. He said it all helps a person learn how to juggle responsibilities, balance priorities and concentrate on the most important things.

Jim