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Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2008 > October > 27 > Entry

Olympian Brendan Hansen at Jo’s, Part 4

By Michael Barnes | Monday, October 27, 2008, 04:34 PM

Continued from previous posts …

Hansen is ready to contribute socially, already working with children’s hospitals and other charities. He’s kept up with his teammates, including Eric Shanteau, who competed in Beijing despite a diagnosis of testicular cancer (he’s cancer-free now).

He maintains a dream that combines his interests and skills: Promoting a pro swim touring circuit, using the Nascar’s sponsorships and point system model. The obstacles include facilities (“pools are dungeons with crappy lighting”) and culture (“we train for eight months for one big race a year, so you couldn’t swim every weekend”). Besides, as he points out, people come to see swimming records broken, which wouldn’t happen if the athletes swim year round.

The $2 million portable meet facility used for the U.S. Olympic trails in Omaha, with its speedy pool, showy lighting, jumbotrons and individual stadium-style seating, could be one answer.

Also, Hansen hopes to promote the sport incrementally, proposing, for instance, a open-water 5K swim from the Pennybaker Bridge on Loop 360 to Hula Hut.

“You’d have people in boats all along the way,” he predicts. “When a big race comes to town, people are excited to see it. Up until now, there’s been a lack of marketing in swimming. Nobody’s really getting the word out there. But you are also seeing a different breed of professional swimmer who understands sponsorships.”

He jokes - reminded of beach volleyball’s success - that Nike should come up with swimwear that shows more than the currently popular armor-like body suits. For the record, Hansen’s not single and has been dating the same woman, a teacher from the Rollingwood area whom he declines to name, for six years.

“We’re in no hurry,” he says. “We were best friends before we started dating. It’s a slow ride and we’re enjoying it. We both love Austin.”

He’s content with his Southwest Austin home, but longs to live closer to the action downtown. He hangs out with buds at central spots like Fogo de Chao, Uchi and El Arroyo.

“You can go out to eat every night and not hit the same thing in Austin,” he says. His El Arroyo reference gives away his salesmanlike - or just conversational - cunning.

“It’s got such an Austin crowd,” he says. “It’s mixed. You get twentysomething students, but also 55-year-old young professionals.”

Pause.

Fifty-five qualifies as young? Then I remember I’d betrayed my 54th birthday earlier that day.