This past June, Wyoming Cowboy Jack O’Neil became a Paralympian, swimming in the Team USA trials in Minnesota and punching his ticket to Paris. Now, he is set to compete at the highest international level in less than a week, with the games kicking off on August 28th.
Ahead of O’Neil’s Paralympic debut, Dave Denniston, head Swim and Dive coach at Wyoming, talked about O’Neil’s journey to the Paralympics. Denniston was a Paralympian himself, competing in the 2008 games. He then went on to coach for Team USA’s Paralympic swim team from 2010 until 2017, when he took the helm of Wyoming’s program.
“I had actually been working with Jack before he came to Wyoming,” Denniston said. “I saw him as a young athlete…he was very athletic and could do anything.”
Several years later, O’Neil reached out to Denniston and expressed his desire to swim at UW. “All right man, let’s give it a shot,” Denniston remembers saying.
Since then, O’Neil has worked Denniston and the rest of the team to keep pushing himself and everyone else. “He’s been a leader of our team since day one, just by example,” Denniston said. “He was made captain last year, and this year he’ll be captain again.”
After he made the team earlier this summer, O’Neil worked in Laramie with Denniston, before heading down to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. “He’s in Stuttgart, Germany right now,” said Denniston. “He actually texted me at 3 a.m. last night asking about a practice, so I think he’s in a good spot,” he said.
With such a large stage, nerves aren’t uncommon, but Denniston wasn’t worried about that for O’Neil. “ Everybody loves him and so I think he gets that nervous energy out by making a new friend, and I think that’s perfect for him,” Denniston said.
“I think he’s gonna do great, and I don’t think there is going to be anything that holds him back.”
O’Neil had to make the transition from swimming for Denniston to working with the US team, but there were no problems in this change. “This has always been Jack’s thing, and he’s always been mature about how he has handled it,” Denniston said. “I’ve had good communication with the coaches that are on staff. I’m a fan at this point,” he continued
“This has been a long time dream for him and to see it come to fruition and be able to help him get there is really rewarding,” Denniston said.
While O’Neil is representing the whole country in Paris, Denniston believes that he won’t forget where he came from. “I’m really proud of him,” he said. “He could have checked out and decided to do his own thing, but this [team] has always been something he has been committed to,” Denniston continued.
“He takes a lot of pride in being a Wyoming Cowboy.”
