Julian Bolling's Interview - He also Kitesurfs

Hero. He also Kitesurf's. My best friend was the son of a ‘bothal paththarakaraya’ Julian Bolling by Mevan Peiris Julian Bolling –Sri Lankas highest achieving, most decorated and might we add most celebrated albeit his achievement being swept through the tides of time- as is the norm, individual sportsman, believes that , , the country is drowning rather than swimming its way to success in sport. Bolling certainly needs no introduction. The only Sri Lankan to participate in three consecutive Olympic Games (Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992) he has most definitely surpassed any athlete in Sri Lankan history. 

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 “I openly say this – we’re trying to host the Asian Youth Games with a budget of USD 300 million and we’re trying to bid for the Commonwealth Games. But last year the Sri Lankan swimmers and water polo players were the only teams in all of Asia to pay for their own tickets to participate at the Asian Championships. Don’t you see that there’s something wrong here?” The lack of proper support and infrastructure for local athletes together with the lack of development programmes for athletes out of Colombo is another problem that needs to be addressed, he said. He points out that there is no hostel built for athletes to stay in when they come to Colombo for meets. “Our local coaches are not recognized and trained, our top athletes lack the necessary investment and athletes at the grass-root level have to stay in temples or vacant school classrooms when they come to Colombo. We’re just going in the wrong direction”. To achieve better results, more has to be spent on the athlete and less on ceremonial procedures, he said. “Next year, the athletes who had to scrape the barrel in order to fund themselves will not participate. This has resulted in our national team having the highest turnover rate (80 percent)! No sport in the world can give you results under these circumstances. I mean take cricket for example – can you produce a Jayasuriya every four years?” The man that is BolLing Born into a family very much into sports, Bolling is the son of the Tara Bolling, swimming star of the 50’s and grandson of F.C. De Saram, who apart from being a prominent politician was also a national cricket captain and a coach to both Royal College and S. Thomas’ College. “I grew up in a competitive sporting family atmosphere” says Julian and adds that competition did not always mean ‘win at any cost’. 

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 Coming from a family of both Royalists and Thomians, he recalls when school rivalry was at a fever pitch within the family. “My grandfather played cricket for Royal and coached there as well, but his last coaching stint was at St. Thomas where he also enrolled his son.” The story goes that when Dijan De Saram (F.C.’s son) came out to bat for St. Thomas’ College during a big match, the Royalists managed to get him out in the very first ball. Ironically, his father was the coach for Royal College at the time. “F.C. De Saram was a character of his own and I would say that he was a combined representative of both schools,” says Julian when speaking about his grandfather. Julian’s own father Ralph Bolling, a planter by profession, played cricket for St. Joseph’s College in 1952. “We didn’t see much of our dad as he was at the estates. My mom was the breadwinner of the family. She was a swimming coach and she introduced me to swimming. It was always a part of our lives since we were children but it was not something that was forced on us.” he said. Julian explains how different the relationship with his father was. “I came home after a meet one day. I had broken 11 national records that day and my dad only got to know when he got home. He took me on his motorcycle (which was a treat in itself) to Raheema’s, which was our ‘spot’ back in the day, and bought me a Necto! Treats didn’t come too often for us, and for me, that was probably the best treat I have had during my childhood.” he recalls. 

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 The Bolling household, Julian says never overly celebrates success or achievement. The best example would be of Julian’s mother, when she was the defending champion of the two-mile sea swim. Tara had to go for her event in Mount Lavinia alone and bring the trophy she won in the bus because Mr. and Mrs. De Saram did not agree on her swimming outfit! Julian vividly remembers the 1979 Indo-Sri Lanka – Bangladesh Triangular meet as all three Bolling brothers represented the country that year. David (Julian’s second brother) and Julian took part in the same event – the 1500m Free Style, where David won gold and Julian took the silver. “David was a super swimmer but he preferred long distance. He also had a few shoulder injuries quite early in his career and he prematurely gave up competitive swimming.” Julian says. Julian’s early mentors were his mother, as she was a swimming coach, and Mr. E.G.A. Wilson whom he describes as “the man who made it all happen for me”. Wilson gave Julian a reason and the passion to swim. “There are two key roles in any sport at school level, the coach and the master in charge. It is for this reason I would like to thank Mr. Mohammed and Mr. Wilson.” As he sees it today The interest in competitive swimming, Julian says, has clearly increased in Sri Lanka. The schools meet in 2013 will feature over 3,800 swimmers whereas in Julian’s time there would have been a total of 600 competitive swimmers in the entire country. “In our time you could count the number of pools we had. However with time, especially in the 90’s where there was a ‘craze for pools’ and increase in investment, we now have sufficient infrastructure. What we don’t have are enough coaches. 

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Royal was struggling for a while and I know the Thomians are struggling right now, but the bottom line is that we just don’t have enough coaches”. Since more students opt to learn to swim and not engage in competitive swimming, the demand for ‘learn to swim’ coaches have increased when compared to those specializing in competitive swimming, which has reduced the number of coaches. This however is not the only issue. Parents and coaches are guilty of excessive enthusiasm, which sometimes pushes the child beyond his or her limit. “It is the same for sports or studies, you overdo something and you’re going to get fed up. The main thing is to keep the candle burning,” Julian said. In this light Julian fully supports the decision by the Education Ministry to only give out certificates of qualification to swimmers in the Under 9, 11 and 13 categories once they complete their event within a pre specified time frame rather than awarding medals. 

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 Not only a swimmer Julian Bolling is not just a superstar swimmer and coach, he is also a very passionate and cause driven individual who actively supports charity. One such prominent endeavour is the ‘Swim Lanka’ project. Sparked off by the combined interest of two British expatriates in Sri Lanka – Tony and Petronella Ballard right after the tsunami in 2004, Swim Lanka is a project which conducts learn to swim sessions for kids along the coastal areas. The project is not only a response to the observation that many people could have survived had they known to swim, it is also a mechanism to address and reduce the trauma of youngsters who were affected by it. “The best way to deal with the trauma is to go back to the roots of the tragedy which is the ocean. Therefore, I suggested that we make a small pool on the beach and do some learn to swim classes. We started this off in Tangalle and initially the kids showed a lot of fear, of the beach and the sea, but at the end of the five weeks, we felt their body language was saying ‘Hey we’re back home!’” This propelled over 30 similar pools being set up around the coastal belt and more learn to swim classes. “We couldn’t make swimmers out of them, but I’m quite certain that we got rid of their fear and trauma.” A devout Christian, Julian is also involved in several evangelical movements. ‘Sportsmen in Action’, an international Christian sports organisation, is another organization he supports. 

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Following his parents’ footsteps, Julian is involved in many of the organization’s activities in Sri Lanka. Better times Julian doesn’t recall any hurdles on his path to the top of the country’s sporting sphere, except for an incident in 1992. During a tea party organised prior to the Olympic team’s departure that year, Sports Minister at the time, Nanda Mathew, announced that Julian Bolling will be the Captain of the Sri Lankan Olympic contingent to Barcelona. However, the papers next day carried that R. Karunananda was the captain. “This was surprising because it was my third consecutive Olympic games while the other athletes were participating for the first or second time. However, we decided not to protest or make a fuss about it and I just went to the Olympics.” Reminiscing his days at Royal College Julian says the most important feature was the cross section of different cultures and social backgrounds at the school. “My best friend in school was a guy called Ameen and his father used to be what we refer to as a bothal-paththara collector - he collected paper from the dustbins for a living. So where you came from was never an issue.” Recalling the ’83 riots, which occurred when he was in school, Julian says that most of his Tamil friends never returned to College. Representing your country at three Olympic Games is an enormous feat for any athlete in the world and the experience he gained plays a significant part in his life, today. However, Julian says that it is an incident that occurred when he took an athlete to the Paralympics in Sydney 2000, which will forever be ingrained in his memory. “I had the privilege of coaching him and accompanying him to the games, we missed out on a medal and he was placed fourth.” The incident occurred while they were travelling in the shuttle service within the Olympic City. “While going for the meet our guys were singing in the bus. No one else did that but I guess we were too crazy. On the way back however I remember the Chinese blind athletes also joined in with a song of their own and then this little Indian girl who was also a blind swimmer did a wonderful solo of a Hindi song! I seriously had goose bumps; no medal will ever give you that satisfaction”. “To me the Paralympics was a greater experience than the Olympics.” 

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 Words of Advice: “Don’t look to man, men can disappoint you. Enjoy what you do. Appreciate competition – this is very important, if there are no other swimmers on the block you can’t swim your best.” Role Model in life: “Jesus is the ideal role model for me. He put others before himself. As a human being, this has a great impact on me.” Favourite Quotes: “If you want to go fast, go alone... If you want to go far, go together.” Your life theory: “I try to put God first, others second and then myself although sometimes I end up doing it the other way round. Life is going to be short lived and we must have a story to tell. It’s also about running with the baton and handing the baton to your successor, in whatever you do you must train the next in line to be better than you” 

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Endorsement for the magazine: “I’m glad that you’re going down a path to try and capture those priceless stories in the Royal Thomian world. If you guys don’t do this a lot of it is going to be buried. Old boys of both schools need to be behind the two schools and support them to try and give the kids at College the same experience that you had or have an even better experience. I think this magazine can help to inspire people to do that and also to keep us in touch. Wish you all the best!”