When most people hear the name Polly Surhoff, they'll likely think of B.J. Surhoff, the former outfielder who is in the Baltimore Orioles' Hall of Fame. But there was a time when people heard the name Polly Winde and thought of speed -- as in 'swam as fast as the wind.'

"She'd be out of the pool, drying off and having her snacks before I'd even be done swimming" one lap, said fellow Hall of Fame inductee Terri Costello, who swam with Winde on the Forest Hill swim team. "She was elite. Even as little kids we always saw her as an Olympian."

Winde Surhoff is still swimming. She took enough time off after college to work as a flight attendant with American Airlines, get married and have four children. In the early 1990s, though, she got back in the pool and hasn't left it since.

"Now, at 45, I feel like I'm in better shape than freshman year of college in terms of maturity and eating habits," Winde Surhoff said.

She now enjoys open water swimming, competes in triathlons and is considering swimming in the Masters Nationals in Georgia this spring.

Winde Surhoff says that a strong support system helped her persevere through the grinding years of competitive swimming that typically lead to burn out. After her father died when she was very young, she remembers her mother, Carol, devoting her life to her swimming career.

"My mom was a widow and this is what she did for me," Winde Surhoff said.

Her friends were also there for her.

"I had a really amazing group of girlfriends. They truly helped me through my career up until college. Every time I'd leave for a week or come into school with wet hair after morning practice, it was normal," she said. "If someone was smoking at a party they would say, 'Can you go somewhere else? She needs her lungs.' "

And even when Winde was an Olympian in training, she still made a point to come back to Ellicott City to compete for Forest Hill in summer swim meets.

"She had fun with the summer swimming," said P.J. Kesmodel, Winde's coach at Forest Hill. "She always had loyalty and it was important to her."

Kesmodel, who went on to coach girls lacrosse at Mt. Hebron with great success, coached swimming for over 20 years.

"Polly was the best swimmer I ever coached," he said. "Her breaststroke kick was natural. She didn't have to be taught."

That Winde never soured on swimming is still a bit surprising, considering that at one point she was swimming five miles a day, and she had her share of heartbreak in a swimming pool.

Like fellow inductee Tami Paumier, Winde Surhoff also remembers when she heard that the U.S. would boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

"I was sitting at the warm down pool with Tracy Caulkins at a meet in Texas when we heard," said Winde Surhoff, who was ranked in the top five in three events for that year's Olympic Trials. "It was awful."

At the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, Winde had another chance, but was passed in the final 30 meters of the 400 individual medley, finishing third. Only the top two swimmers in each event qualified for that year's Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. B.J., then her boyfriend, already had his spot on the Olympic baseball team and the couple dreamt of going together.

Winde had won a silver medal at the 1983 Pan American Games in the 400 IM.

"I was really (prepared) to make that team, not only in my head but statistically. I just had a bad race and got touched out (at the wall)," Winde Surhoff said.

Though B.J. called her every night to keep her updated on what was happening -- the U.S. baseball team lost to Japan in the first-place game -- Polly still feels the sting of her missed opportunity.

"I went home and I was just devastated. I had dropped out (of college) to train. I stopped my entire life ... I can't watch the Olympics without crying, even winter," she said.

Winde Surhoff didn't spend much time feeling sorry for herself though.

The summer of 1984 she won her first Senior National championship in the 200 breaststroke and went on to have a very prolific college career at North Carolina, winning the Atlantic Coast Conference title in the 400 IM every year from 1983 to 1986. Her time of 4:11.32 is still a Tar Heel record for the event.

In all, she won 13 ACC titles and earned first-team All-America honors 11 times.

Winde Surhoff now coaches the varsity swim team at St. Paul's School for Girls, in Baltimore County.

Her older daughter Kendall swims and plays field hockey at St. Paul's. Son Austin clearly got his mom's swimming genes: He was a six-time MIAA champion at St. Paul's and as a freshman at the University of Texas, he is one of the Longhorns' top backstrokers and IMers.

Pathfinders for Autism, an organization that raises awareness about autism, is also a big part of the Surhoffs' life. Son Mason is autistic, and B.J (president) and Polly are both on the group's board of directors.

Polly and B.J. were both recently named to the top 50 of their respective sports in honor of the ACC's 50th anniversary.

---

user comments (0)