LOS ANGELES -- Fifty years ago last month, Mike Nyeholt was a freshman swimmer on a powerhouse USC men’s swimming and diving team that stormed to a national championship in 1975, part of a run of dominance in which the Trojans hoisted the NCAA first-place trophy four straight years.
Nyeholt won three national title rings (1975-77) as an All-American distance swimmer for the Trojans and was teammates with some of the sports’ legends, including U.S. Olympic gold medalists John Naber, Bruce Furniss and Rod Strachan.
But in 1981, Nyeholt’s fortunes changed. He was paralyzed from the chest down in a motorcycle accident, a broken neck ending his competitive career and upending his life.
Nyeholt’s Trojan teammates held a fundraiser — a swim-a-thon — for him to raise money for a fully equipped, wheelchair-accessible van needed for Nyeholt’s transportation. Spearheaded by teammate and longtime friend Ron Orr, the event was called Swim For Mike.
The outpouring of love and resources provided much more money than was needed for the specialized van, so much so that at Nyeholt’s request, the extra money was used to form a new scholarship fund to help other physically challenged athletes.
In 1982, the event’s name was updated to Swim With Mike and that spring, Nyeholt swam, with aid, while helping raise funds for others in need.
More than four decades later, Swim With Mike has become a nationally-renowned scholarship program that has changed the lives of hundreds of physically challenged athletes. In total, Swim With Mike has provided scholarships to 310 physically challenged athletes at 156 universities across 47 states. There are close to 50 current scholarship recipients.
The 44th annual Swim With Mike event will be held Saturday (April 5) at USC’s Uytengsu Aquatics Center and Nyeholt will be there again. He will be surrounded by teammates celebrating the reunion of USC’s 1975 national title team as well as hundreds of other swimmers, friends and volunteers of a fundraiser that began as a ripple and has now generated a tidal wave of support.
To register or donate to Swim With Mike, please click here.