James Walsh Profile

AGE: 21 years old

SPORT: Men’s 200m butterfly

OLYMPIC EXPERIENCE: Two-time Olympian

MEDALS: Two-gold winner, 200m butterfly SEA Games 2007 and ’05 Philippine record-holder, 100m and 200m butterfly

JAMES BERNARD WALSH is facing long odds in the Olympics. But while he and his swim teammates want to keep their chances real, that isn’t stopping Walsh from wanting to meet his own modest goals.

“I know, just like any other ordinary game, an Olympic upset can also happen,” Walsh said. “I just hope this year will be better than 2004.”

In the Athens Games, Walsh fell short of his target, finishing his favorite event, the 200-meter butterfly, at fourth place in the heats and 37th out of 39 competitors overall. Even the time he registered couldn’t better a previous mark he set in the same event, a result that disheartened Walsh and his colleagues

If his road back to the Olympics is any indication, Walsh is ready to put that glum experience behind him.

In the 2005 Southeast Asian Games, Walsh, 21, won the gold in the 200m fly besides the bronze he secured as part of the RP quartet in the 4x100 medley race.

In the 2006 Asian Games, he made it to the finals in three of four events he joined including in the 200m butterfly, the men’s 40x100 medley relay and the 4x200 freestyle relay.

In the 2007 SEA Games, Walsh defended his title in the 200 fly, won a gold in the 4x100 medley relay, and took a silver in the 100m fly and the 4x100m freestyle.

“My goal is to make it to the semifinals [in the Olympics],” Walsh said. “Winning will be very hard, but I have to catch up. My goal is to defeat myself and improve on my personal time from Athens.”

An active sportsman who plays basketball, baseball, fencing, soccer, table tennis, and racquetball and engages in diving, Walsh is one of a handful of US-raised Filipino swimmers that the country has been tapping to represent it in international tournaments.

Walsh also used to be an avid taekwondo practitioner, earning a second-degree black belt in the US age-group championships in 1996.

A premedicine graduate of the University of Florida, Walsh said he will take up internship in orthopedic surgery before he gets into medicine proper, a decision that was influenced by his American father, a clinical cardiac electrophysiology in Jacksonville and Orange Country.
But Walsh’s plans had to be put on hold after he was given another chance to make it back to the Olympics.

In July 2007, Walsh ended up in the top 10 in the FINA USA Senior National Swimming Championships held in Indiana. His time of two minutes and .42 seconds broke both the Philippine and the Southeast Asian records and gave him passage to Beijing.

The Philippine Amateur Swimming Association lauded Walsh’s finish.

“He’s a smart swimmer, and he’s the kind of swimmer who’s going to go for it even if you don’t push him,” PASA president Mark Joseph said.

“He’s easy to be underestimated but his event is a technique race. Pwede siyang manggulat diyan,” he added.

Even Walsh was impressed.

“That was incredible. At least, I gained a slot back to the Olympics. I’m just happy to represent the country once again.”