Amberly’s swimming Olympian: Ken Merten of the 1968 Olympics
CARY, N.C. — Ken Merten was raised in Los Angeles and began swimming at age seven when his father built a backyard pool. In order to motivate Ken and his older brother to learn how to swim, he offered up five silver dollars to the one that was able to swim across the pool first. “I managed to win!” Ken recalls, and by age nine, Ken and his brother joined a neighborhood swim team that trained year-round. By age ten, he set a national record in the 50-yard breaststroke. To say Ken has innate ability is an understatement.
Ken competed during his high school years and moved up to a highly competitive summer program, the Los Angeles Athletic Club. He trained with coach Peter Daland, who was also the head coach at the University of Southern California (USC). When Ken graduated from high school, things began to blossom for him. From that point on, his momentum progressed rather quickly. Following graduation, he qualified for the 1963 Pan American Games in Brazil, and the team was coached by Alfred “Red” Barr from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas. That connection brought Ken to Dallas and SMU.
What inspired Ken to the Olympics was a pure love of swimming. “What was unique when I swam was that you competed for fun; there were no endorsements or sponsorships. What I did enjoy through my success was having the opportunity for international competition and travel as a member of Team USA. I got to see a great part of the world, including western Europe, Poland, Russia, Japan, Hawaii, Canada, Brazil, and Mexico. It justified all the hard work,” he explains.
Ken participated in the 1964 Olympic trials for the Tokyo Olympics. He was hoping to make the 1964 Olympic team to go to Tokyo, Japan, after being the National 200 meter breaststroke champion in 1963. The trials were in NY during the World’s Fair, where he finished 5th in both breaststroke events. At the time, they were only taking the top three to the Olympics. Ken was disappointed that he had to wait another four years, but he believes the timing all worked out in the end.
Ken went on to qualify for the 1968 Olympic team in Mexico City. “When I finally did qualify, I placed second in both events. My goal was to make the Olympic team, not about medals. “Becoming an Olympian was the goal,” he says. After qualifying, he went to a month-long training camp in Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy to train at an altitude similar to Mexico City.
He recalls at the Olympic Pool in Mexico City, swimmers were not allowed seating to watch teammates compete. “I did not get to see another swimming race aside from my own. We marched out, swam our race, climbed out and then went back to the locker area and warm-up pool.” He said there was no place to watch the other races, although we did have a television in the “ready room.”
Although Ken did not win a medal at the Olympics, the times he achieved in the trials would have won him medals, but it was not to be. When the games were over, he flew back to Dallas. “The day after I arrived back, I was in school teaching; I did have bills to pay after all!”
“Few males swam past their college years in my time. A few women were swimming past high school in the 60s, but there was no NCAA competition for women, and that made it a challenge to continue competing. Another change, now athletes are paid when they win medals at the Olympics. “I got bathing suits and towels!” he jokes. Ken takes it all in stride because of his love for swimming, and the experiences he had made everything worth it for him.
After the Olympics, he coached teams at the YMCA in Texas for six years and then as a high school Director of Athletics. He coached swimming and water polo for St. Mark’s School of Texas, a prominent boy’s school (with alums like the Wilson brothers, Luke, Owen and Andrew as well as Tommy Lee Jones and Ross Perot Jr).
Ken still keeps in touch with his fellow Olympians. In 2018, he attended a 50th reunion held in Colorado Springs. These days, Ken swims for cardiovascular fitness. He swims a couple of days a week in the afternoon (about a mile each time). In addition to swimming, he also keeps fit with weight lifting, golf and hiking. He is also a windsurfer and competed for over 30 years, winning many Texas State Championships and one National Championship. Trips to the OBX for windsurfing are a must, as often as possible. He was also inducted into the Texas Swimming Hall of Fame in Austin, Texas, in 2019.
SWIMMING BIOGRAPHY FOR KEN MERTEN
- 1968 Olympics – Mexico City: 100 meter & 200 meter Breaststroke
- 1967 Pan American Games – Winnipeg, Canada: Two Bronze medals in the 100 meter & 200-meter Breaststroke
- 1967 FISU Games (World University Games) – Tokyo, Japan: Three gold medals in the 100 meter Breaststroke, 200 meter Breaststroke & 400 meter Medley Relay. A World Record in the relay.
- 1963 Pan American Games – Sao Paulo, Brazil: Silver medal in the 200 meter Breaststroke.
- 1963 – 1968: Ten times National AAU Champion in breaststroke.
- 1967 NCAA Swimming Championships: Two gold medals in the 100 yd. and 200 yd. Breaststroke.
- Two NCAA and National AAU records while swimming for Southern Methodist University.
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