Nicolas Nilo Oliveira was a boy growing up in Brazil when he jumped into a swimming pool even though he didn’t know how to swim. He nearly drowned. The lifeguard who rescued him could have simply sent him away. Instead, he offered to teach him to swim. It was the first of several opportunities that would eventually take Oliveira, known as Nic or Nilo, from a child without access to a public swimming pool to a three-time Olympian.
Today, he is bringing those lessons to children in Watsonville, where he directs instruction for Jim Booth Swim School at Duncan Holbert Pool and coaches a developmental swim team at Total Fitness. ‐I’ve learned more from watching him teach them than I’ve learned in the last 10 years,‐ Jim Booth said.
Swimming became a way of life for Nic and his wife, Daiane. She also competed at the Olympic Trials and currently works with the swim program at Stanford. Both are USA Swimming-certified coaches, and together they are helping continue the legacy of Jim Booth Swim School, which has taught more than 30,000 children during the past 53 years.
Nic’s own path to the Olympics was anything but easy. After the lifeguard taught him to swim, a coach eventually recognized his ability and allowed him to join a competitive team at no cost. Nic rode the bus two hours each way to practice. By age 16, he had set his first Brazilian national record. At 18, continuing his swimming career depended on finding an opportunity in the United States. He arrived in Florida in 2004 speaking virtually no English, worked to save money and began contacting American universities. He also had to take the SAT. Despite doubts about whether he could pass the test with so little English, Nic excelled in math and earned a full scholarship to the University of Arizona, where he studied business and economics while swimming. There, he met some of the coaches who would have the biggest influence on his life.
When he told coach Rick DeMont that he wanted ‐to try for the Olympics,‐ DeMont replied, ‐You will not just try. You will be an Olympian.‐ He was right. Nic represented Brazil at three Olympic Games and finished fifth at the 2016 Olympics. In 2008, he helped the University of Arizona win the NCAA National Championship. The team was later invited to the White House, where they met President George W. Bush.
But when Nic talks about his success, he tends to talk less about records and more about the people who helped him get there. There was the lifeguard who taught him to swim instead of throwing him out of the pool. The coach who allowed him to train for free. DeMont, who believed he could become an Olympian, and University of Arizona head coach Frank Busch, who became like a father to him. Nic calls people like them the ‐angels‐ who appeared at different points in his life.
‐I now want to be the one to help some struggling kid believe and to share all of the skills that I was fortunate enough to learn in my journey,‐ he said. That experience shapes the way he approaches children at the pool today. ‐For me, everything comes back to three things: fun, discipline and purpose,‐ Nic said. ‐Kids should love being in the water and enjoy the process, but they should also learn the value of discipline and understand that what they are doing has a purpose.‐
For most of the children he teaches, that purpose won’t be winning an NCAA championship or going to the Olympics. It might simply be learning to swim safely, overcoming a fear of the water or gaining confidence in themselves. ‐Swimming gave me opportunities that changed my life, and I believe we have a responsibility to give that back,‐ Nic said. ‐Whether a child becomes an Olympian or simply learns to be safe and confident in the water, I want our coaches to be positive role models and help each child leave the pool a little more confident than when they came in.‐
