Nothing about him gave anything away.
Well, nearly nothing.
He looked the part. His name fit, his voice revealed zilch and he went about his business like any local teenager would. Everything about Jakob Borrman was Swedish.
Well, nearly everything.
“The clothes I wore was something they kind of were stereotyping. Fashion is very different (in Sweden),” he laughs now. “I was wearing baggy shorts and I guess they dressed nicer than I did. So they thought that was funny.”
Only his choice in style outed Jakob for what he truly was — an American in Södertälje, Sweden, training with a group of swimmers he had never met.
Technically, Jakob is Swedish. His father, Mattias, was born and raised there, granting Jakob dual citizenship. But outside of six of seven weeks of his life, Jakob lives in the U.S.
Swimming brought Jakob back to Sweden, a chance to train for and compete in the Swedish Youth National Championships over the summer exclusively against kids his own age, a welcome change from the standard setup back in the States.
For six weeks, the 15-year-old Loveland High sophomore was more or less on his own. Mom and dad stayed behind this time.
“We kind of just wanted to do this, for one, to try something new athletically, but from mine and my wife’s Shelly perspectives, we thought it was an opportunity for some general life growth,” Mattias said, “to experience a different culture without mom and dad. He was in charge of logistics and responsible for training times and all that stuff.”
Jakob practically passed as a born-and-bred Swede thanks to a sort of experiment.
Passing on the culture which raised him to his children was important for Mattias, even if the Borrman family called Fort Collins home. So Jakob was brought up with both English and Swedish.
Mattias read to Jakob and his sister in his native tongue, translated books and even watched Swedish television programming.
“He speaks Swedish just like me. People who hear him don’t know that he wasn’t born there,” Mattias said. “It’s cool and a little surprising truly. It’s been a big, grand experiment between him and his sister. It truly worked and we’re thrilled about that.”
There was no time to waste. Jakob arrived in Sweden at 7 a.m. and by 5 p.m. the same day was in the pool training in the same town his father grew up in before a track and field career brought Mattias to the U.S. (where he and Shelly are the only husband and wife hall of fame members at Colorado State University).
Sure, the pool and environment were different. He was at sea level for one (for which Jakob was very thankful), swimming in 50-meter long course pools with training focused more on technique and breathing.
His first meet at a youth grand prix in Stockholm saw five top-four finishes, all in personal-best times, before traveling to Mallorca, an island of Spain for a week of training camp in preparation for the national championships.
Yet it was still swimming. His time out of the pool are the memories that will last. A chance to see more of the world most kids don’t, all while growing as a person.
“It was nice to experience how they do things differently over there,” he said. “I had to take the train to practice everyday and be more independent because I didn’t have any parents over there to guide me. I was exposed to a lot more of it since I was there for a long time.”
By mid-July, the national championships finally arrived, highlighted by an eighth-place finish in the 200-meter freestyle, a personal best time of 2:05.23 in prelims and 2:06.54 in the finals. He would also swim the 400 and 800 free relays, 100 and 200 fly and 200 IM, all in the top 30.
“They had really nice blocks, were sponsored by all the major brands and it was like a real championship meet,” Jakob said. “It was really cool to be in that atmosphere, and you got kinda hyped up by it.”
Swimming was done. Back with his family again for the end of the trip, the Borrman’s crossed the bridge to Copenhagen, Denmark to see the Tivoli Gardens. They’d fish and celebrated midsummer, a traditional Swedish holiday, before coming home.
“Even though I wasn’t a swimmer, just having a summer where you train and compete and that’s your thing, for him to do that all in the same environment where I did as a young man,” Mattias said, “I think it’s pretty neat for us to be able to share that.”
Despite the same old clothes, Jakob Borrman returned more a Swede than ever before.
Cris Tiller: tillerc@reporter-herald.com or twitter.com/cristiller
