Liz Hogan once quit swimming because it had consumed her life. A former prodigy from Northern California who first competed for a spot on the 1972 U.S. Olympic team at 15, Hogan retired before she turned 20. She had just finished her freshman year at UCLA after narrowly missing a spot on the 1976 Olympic team as well.
The sudden death of her older brother Ted from a previously undetected heart condition known as cardiomyopathy and her own bout with diverticulitis contributed to Hogan's losing her zeal for a sport she had competed in since age 6. But the years of spending hours underwater also had taken their toll emotionally and physically.
"I just wanted to do something different," she said recently. "It had been my whole life."
It took more than 30 years and rehabilitation from injuries she suffered in a near-fatal car accident in 2004 in Florida to bring Hogan, a physical scientist for the Navy, back to swimming. Briefly ranked first in the United States and second in the world in two events as a teenager, Hogan is again considered among the most dominant swimmers in her age group.
Now 56, Hogan is among a half-dozen members of the Anne Arundel Amphibians and more than 100 Marylanders competing in Cleveland this week in the National Senior Games. She won 12 gold medals in 18events in her first three National Senior Games and has set five records in the biennial competition since turning 50 — the minimum age for competition. She added to her medal haul by winning the 100-meter butterfly Saturday and finished fourth in the 200 individual medley.
"I'm just so happy that I can do it," Hogan said. "I love it right now because I'm doing exactly what I need in my life. I need a specific goal, but I don't get upset not going as fast as I used to. The fact that I'm faster at [nearly] 57 than I was at 49 is awesome to me. My goal is to see how good I can get."
Coming back
Hogan — whose injuries in the Florida crash included breaking her hip, pelvis, femur and both wrists and dislocating her left ankle — credits the Annapolis swim club and its longtime coach, Rand Vaillancourt, for helping her renew her love for the sport. Hogan didn't tell Vaillancourt about her previous swimming career when she first showed up several months after the accident.
"I came in on a cane that time — he was a little bit worried," Hogan said, recalling their initial meeting. "What's great about his team is he'll take all levels of swimmers as long as you can swim two lengths [of the pool], and then he'll work with you to make you a better swimmer. I got in the water and he said, 'You know how to swim, don't you?'"
Hogan said she waited a few weeks to tell him about her experience because of the mixed feelings she still had about swimming.
"I just wanted to work myself into it and see if I wanted to do it again," she said. "Once I got in with a team again — and a team with all different types of athletes who support one another and work hard together — it was great.
"I love helping people with their strokes. I love the teaching part. And I love being pushed — that's what I needed. I couldn't do it just for myself. I needed to do it for a team. It really brought the drive back."
Vaillancourt, who has coached at the Arundel Olympic Swim Center for 17 years, quickly moved Hogan to what she called "the fast lane."
"She was pretty special from the beginning," Vaillancourt said. "She's a great motivator. She takes the time to help others, which I encourage. She has a unique point of view because she's been to the top of the mountain."
Keith Lucas, Hogan's husband, said she hid her swimming history from him initially, too. They met playing volleyball more than 25 years ago when they were both working in Delaware.
"She has a couple of cases of medals that I never saw because she had them in the attic of her house," Lucas said. "She has things like the pewter vase she got in Moscow for winning her events there. I knew she was a good swimmer. But I never saw her swim until after the accident. I tried to encourage her a few times, but she really had no interest before [the accident]."
Lucas, who works as an engineer for the Navy, said swimming helped speed his wife's rehabilitation and allowed her to return to an active life professionally and personally.
"I think it focused her on recovery," Lucas said. "She enjoyed the rehab because she got to work with other people and help them, too. When I put her in the pool, she knew she had to do it competitively. She couldn't just wallow in the water. From years of training, she understands what she needs to do to get better. And she helps the others because they see her work so hard."
Older sister Sue de Boer said that when Hogan called from her first National Senior Games, she was more excited than she had been in years.
"She said, 'I had so much fun, I met so-and-so,' and I asked, 'How'd you do?' and she said, 'I felt good, I had so much fun,'" de Boer said. "I had to go online to see that she had taken the gold and broken the record. I called her back and said, 'You won!' and she said, 'I had so much fun, I met so many people.' I said, 'But you won!' and she said, 'It's not about that.' That's the part that's very different."
A close call
Lucas thought he had lost his wife in the accident on Valentine's Day 2004. They were driving together from a lab in Key West, Fla., heading to Washington, D.C., to deliver equipment that couldn't be shipped. Lucas, who was driving, said they were on a busy highway outside Orlando when another car flew over the median and came to a stop right in front of their car, which plowed into it.
While he suffered only a few cuts and bruises, Lucas recalled being shocked to look over at his wife, who had been working on a computer in the front passenger seat. She wasn't moving or breathing. A nurse who had also been driving on Interstate 4 helped revive her.
The roof of the car had to be cut off for Hogan to be carefully extricated and airlifted to a hospital in Orlando. She eventually was taken by medical plane to George Washington University Hospital for further surgery.
During her rehabilitation, Hogan's six siblings took turns coming to help out and encourage her through the arduous process. De Boer said Hogan's old competitive instincts took over.
"After the accident, when she's coming home from the hospital, I'm talking to her and she gets really frustrated with the physical therapist and saying, 'It's not enough,'" deBoer said. "She has stairs in her house and she has casts on her arms and her legs and she says, 'I'm going to slide down the stairs.' But then she started saying, 'I've got to get back in the pool.'"
After spending six weeks in rehab and an additional three months in a wheelchair, Hogan was eventually cleared to go back to work. Though she needed help getting around, Lucas took her to a swimming pool near FedEx Field — they live in Upper Marlboro — where Hogan quickly progressed to swimming laps.
"I started to water walk. I said, 'This is crazy, I'm a swimmer.' I started to swim some, and it was great," she said.
Two days later, a colleague told Hogan about Vaillancourt's swim team.
She had briefly tried swimming when she lived in Lewes, Del., years before, but "the one thing I learned is that I couldn't just swim lengths. I'd get in and it was just boring to me."
A different feeling
As she prepared for the competition in Cleveland — not an easy task, considering the 12-hour days she spends working at the many labs she travels to — Hogan didn't view the National Senior Games as a way to fill a void left by what she failed to accomplish as a teenager.
"They're completely separate, and the way I feel about them is completely different," she said. "I got so much from swimming when I was young and the competition and the people I met and the experiences. I got to travel all over. Even though I didn't make the Olympics, it didn't stop me in my life. All the sports I did when I was young have given me the strength to be a very strong woman in my 50s, and I'm very proud of that."
If anything, she takes more pride in what she has done with her professional life. After graduating with a degree in psychology from UCLA, Hogan went back to school in Delaware to study marine science. That eventually led to her training with the Navy and becoming an expert in developing anti-corrosion systems for vessels. She and her team were honored at the Pentagon this year.
Hogan doesn't think swimming will consume her this time, even after she retires.
"I really enjoy right now. I really enjoy Masters swimmers," she said. "There are some who are like triathletes. I'm not at that crazy level. I want to get better. I want to work on my stroke techniques, try to get stronger and faster, but it's not my whole life."
don.markus@baltsun.com
Local competitors
Some Baltimore-area competitors at the National Senior Games in Cleveland:
Archery
SUSAN WEINSTEIN Crownsville
RICHARD PASCHKE Timonium
TED LIGHT Cockeysville
LARRY HIX Crownsville
JAMES WORRILL Harwood
RONALD THOMPSON Crownsville
Badminton
RICHARD SHINGLES Cockeysville
FRANK FENG Clarksville
JIN-CHUNG HSU Columbia
JIANPING ZHOU Arnold
Basketball
DORIA WOLFE Taneytown
GEORGE KIMMETT Lutherville
GEORGE ROTH Pylesville
HERMAN SMITH Catonsville
JOSEPH MEDVED Lutherville
JOHN KOPAJTIC Cockeysville
MAX OBUSZEWSKI Baltimore
STEVE LAWRENCE Bowie
IVAN LESHINSKY Baltimore
GILBERT HOFFMAN Timonium
THOMAS WAINWRIGHT Randallstown
RONALD WATSON Linthicum
FRANK KITZMILLER Dayton
MARY ZIEGLER Keymar
FRANK LASTNER Cockeysville
PAUL MCGILLICUDDY Baltimore
LINDA LANGE Columbia
CHARLIE COOPER Baltimore
GERARD POITER Phoenix
Bowling
GEORGE PRUDEN Laurel
SHIRLEY ABATTA Laurel
CARMEN CAMPBELL Columbia
DORA LONG Laurel
EDWIN LANEHART Ellicott City
JAN SHELDON Ellicott City
JOYCE WHEATLEY Crofton
KARL SCHLEUNES Sykesville
PERCY MACK Baltimore
WAYNE MINGER Crofton
CAROL ANN CUNEO Perry Hall
CARL CUNEO Perry Hall
JOHN MADDOX Columbia
DEBORAH HOPPE Bowie
DANIEL WHEATLEY Crofton
SHARON CUNEO Baltimore
JOHN MARTIN Harwood
CORNELIUS BARKLEY Ellicott City
BETH MOULTON Baltimore
LINDA MUDD Odenton
THOMAS SWARTZ Crofton
Cycling
STEVE OWENS Friendship
RUSSELL LOY Cockeysville
MARY ELLEN MCLEWEE Sparks
BOB BROWN Abington
Disc golf
MARK SHERWOOD Laurel
Golf
CAROLYN HUDSON Bowie
DAVID SHERIFF Severn
CATHERINE BARNES-SMITH Severna Park
ROBERT BURKHART Severn
KAREN WOOD Crofton
MARY LAUFFER Annapolis
THERESA HORTON Cockeysville
Pickleball
PAT SOTAK Eldersburg
RUTH LAMPERT New Windsor
SANDRA BOWMAN Westminster
Race walk
JOHN MORRISON Essex
Racquetball
RUSSELL CESARI Annapolis
HARRY SEYMOUR Annapolis
DAVID BAECHTOLD Annapolis
DARRELL DEMPSTER Annapolis
JOEL WEXLER Odenton
Road race
STEVE SCHAEFFER Mount Airy
ADELE SNOWMAN Upperco
MOLLY SHERWOOD Annapolis
BARBARA GARNER Baltimore
Shuffleboard
JOYCE DURBIN Baltimore
SUE HABIG Laurel
Softball
ROBERT BAUR Kingsville
GEORGE WAGNER Monkton
CHARLES DERRICK Arbutus
MICHAEL ALEXANDER Bel Air
JAMES YOUNG Fork
WILLIAM LOVELACE Annapolis
PETER BIELSKI Annapolis
GLORIA BROWN Baltimore
LEO GREEN Bowie
JAMES WARFIELD Ellicott City
JOY PRIDE Baltimore
MARVIN HUNTER Gambrills
VICKIE SANDERS Linthicum
GEORGE SANDERS Linthicum
JANE ROGERS Mount Airy
WALTER HOOPER Ellicott City
CARMENCAMPBELL Columbia
ROBERT HRUZ JOPPA
IDA WRIGHT Bowie
MARY BROCH Bowie
SHEILA HUTCHISON Mount Airy
DIANE GARDNER Laurel
PATRICIA MARTIN Woodbine
TAMARA MAULL Odenton
SYLVIA JONES Baltimore
AURORE SIMS Baltimore
HAZEL PRIOLEAU Baltimore
SHEILA GARRETT Gwynn Oak
Swimming
RICHARD CORSELLO Street
BURT BRONK Abington
BRADLEY MINER Edgewater
JOHN COLLINGS Annapolis
MICHAEL MARDESICH Pasadena
CARL CUNEO Perry Hall
CLAUDIA SIMPSON Baltimore
BARBARA SCHEFFTER Mount Airy
CAROLYNN FOLEY Harwood
LOU CORONES Annapolis
JOHN ZARKOWSKY Annapolis
CAROL BUFTON Brookeville
RAND VAILLANCOURT Pasadena
Table tennis
YVONNE SMART Columbia
BARBARA BITGOOD Laurel
SI CHEONG Ellicott City
JEFF SMART Columbia
STEVE HOCHMAN Westminster
YOUNG LEE Annapolis
MARK RADOM Owings Mills
RANDY MARTIN Kingsville
Tennis
ROBERT HELLER Severna Park
FRANCES FLATAU Joppa
CATHIE MORRISON Bel Air
JACOB ZYLBERBERG Reisterstown
HEDY BRANDT Ellicott City
MICHAEL STEVENS White Marsh
JENNIFER MURDUCK Ellicott City
LISA SCOTT Woodstock
RUSSELL FINK Annapolis
MELVIN COMET Catonsville
MOE DI PIETRO Crofton
ELIZABETH KILGUS Edgewater
DAVID PONDER Edgewater
HIROYO FISHER Columbia
NARSIMA RAO Severn
SANDRA NEWMAN Bowie
SHARI STERNBERG Bowie
GAIL ZYLBERBERG Reisterstown
ELLEN PONDER Edgewater
PETER SCHANCK Annapolis
ROBERT EDLUND Westminster
JAMES MURDUCK Ellicott City
Track and field
WAYNE REISBERG Marriottsville
JOHN STROUSS III Annapolis
WILLIAM JOHNS Baltimore
DOMINIC CORSON Bel Air
NANCY BERGER Hunt Valley
EDWIN SIMMONS Baltimore
GARY BARLOW Whiteford
STEPHEN SCHAEFFER Mount Airy
JOHN ELLIOTT Columbia
CLAUDIA SIMPSON Baltimore
MELVIN COMET Catonsville
ALAN MURRAY Crofton
SANDY TRIOLO Baltimore
GLEN ALLEN Baltimore
JOHN MADDOX Columbia
DAVID JONES Clarksville
NARSIMA RAO Severn
VANI RAO Sever
WARD JONES Edgewater
DANIEL WHEATLEY Crofton
MARTIN ROSMAN Towson
Triathlon
MOLLY SHERWOOD Annapolis
BARBARA GARNER Baltimore
BOB BROWN Abington
Volleyball
GARY AYRES Bowie
CHARLES STILLMAN Glen Burnie
EUGENE YEE Columbia
TOM KEMP Owings Mills
MICHAEL MCGUIRE Kingsville
GARY MARRIE Bowie
JACK SEMON Jarrettsville
HENRY DAHLEN Ellicott City
JULIA JOHNSON Elkridge
LINDA LANGE Columbia
WAYNE MINGER Crofton
PAUL ZIMMERMAN Pasadena
JAAN SULG Baltimore
LYNN ADAMS Columbia
SINCLAIR GEARING Davidsonville
SUE RUBLE Mount Airy
JOAN DELPI Millersville
SUE HABIG Laurel
RONALD BOWLES Bowie
ROBERT REILLY Crofton
WILLIAM JOHNSON Bowie
WILLIAM HOUCK Ellicott City
JAMES KELLY Crownsville
JAN MCGARRY Laurel
MARTIN SCHNUIT Glen Burnie
JAMES MURDUCK Ellicott City
JIM KLEIBER Bowie
ARDEN FIELDS Severna Park