Swimming golden boy Julian Bolling nearly quit before ‘91 SAF miracle
It is a little-known secret that Julian Bolling, the pin-up boy of Sri Lanka swimming in the 80s decade who won a record six gold medals when Colombo hosted the SAF (South Asian) Games in 1991, had wanted to quit the sport just two weeks before the event.
“I swam because I enjoyed and yes because there were results. But two weeks before the SAF Games, I quit the team because I was not enjoying it. I was struggling and the country had expectations. I was not swimming my best and I didn’t like the pressure. The 91 SAF is a miracle. You have no idea what I went through,” revealed the three-Olympian who went on to compete in the Barcelona Games the following year.
It was his mother Tara Bolling, a former Sri Lanka swimmer herself, who inspired Julian to overcome this predicament by showering unconditional love and understanding as a coach.
“The most beautiful thing in life for me is my mother who gave her everything for me. She had given 15 years of her time and finances, and we used to cycle together to the Josephian pool. SAF was the pinnacle but I said ‘mum, I don’t want to swim this’. I expected my mother to say something like ‘we have sacrificed so much, you can do it’ but instead she said nothing,” he recalled.
“Now I think how beautiful was that. At the time I was happy she didn’t force me. Now when I look back at her life especially after her death, I was thinking I didn’t do anything to make my parents happy. They wanted us to do things and enjoy, and if they can afford they will help,” reflected Julian, 54, who is a father figure to many budding swimmers running his own academy.
For five years he had not done a PB (personal best) being virtually on the decline.
“After five years to do a PB was more satisfaction. Only my mother and I knew that story, my brothers didn’t know,” he said harping on what is success.
“What if a Maldivian beaten me that day. I would have won silvers instead of all that golds because a Maldivian was faster than me that day. So now what, am I a failure? I won’t be invited to be chief guest,” argued Julian defining success as “happiness at home.”
Although he seemed at ease splashing Freestyle and Butterfly strokes in the pool, it was not smooth sailing despite winning 15 gold medals for Sri Lanka at the SAF between 1984 to 1991 and representing Sri Lanka at three Olympic games – Los Angeles (1984), Seoul (1988) and finally at Barcelona.
“I have lot of regrets. The last four years of Olympics, I went on a scholarship to America. I went with lot of expectations to improve my skills but I hit rock bottom. I didn’t know why,” he revealed.
“I used to survive on 2 dollars a day food money. Now when I look back, I realised I never went hungry but I never ate the right food. I lost my body fat from 7% which is the lowest I can be and dropped to 3%. They said if I felt sick during winter with 3%, I can die because the body needs an immune system,” he explained.
“I am training full time and line up half an hour before they close because they discount their dough nuts. I buy about six dough nuts and eat that as dinner. When I say regret yes, but I strongly feel God has a purpose in everything in life. It may be now I can empathise with others who are hungry whereas I can sympathise with someone if I haven’t been through it. I strongly believe you go through life with things you can struggle to help somebody else,” said Julian, a devout Christian.
“Here is a regret. If I had a little more money I would have swum faster. My last 10 years of swimming, 80% I struggled. That’s the beauty of life. I am the luckiest man to be given all and suddenly to struggle like that. At that moment it was no fun when something which I love was not coming. But now when I look back and ask why did I compete, I remember I competed because I love my team mates. I love the practice, the playground where your friends are and shower times. For two hours we are putting our head down and swimming like idiots, 10 minutes in the shower is like paradise,” said Julian.