Still One Goal To Go

For many Crimson senior athletes, Commencement marks the end of their careers as students and as athletes. But for Keith Kaplan, co-captain of the Harvard men's swimming team, there will be one last hurrah.

While other graduating scholar-athletes have already hung up the spikes or skates, Kaplan continues to train for the Maccabiah Games, which will take place in Israel this summer. As a member of the United States delegation to what is often called the Jewish Olympics, Kaplan will spend three weeks with 4000 athletes from 41 nations.

"It's going to be a cultural experience, a sports experience. It's going to be incredible," the Eliot House senior says. Somewhat more wistfully he adds, "That will be my last swim meet ever."

It will be a fitting end to a career which took Kaplan from a YMCA near his home in Manalapan, N.J., to The Peddie School, renowned as a swimming powerhouse, and finally to Harvard for four stellar years with the Crimson squad.

Kaplan's accomplishments are exceptional. He holds two Harvard records--in the 50-yd. and 100-yd. freestyle events--and was a member of the 400-yd. freestyle relay team that set the current mark. Last year he took first place in the 50-yd. freestyle at the Eastern Championships. And this season he made his fourth-straight appearance in the NCAA Championships, swimming a leg on the fifth-place medley relay team to earn All-America honors.

Kaplan has also received several team awards, including the Harold S. Ulen Trophy for leadership and sportsmanship.

But the highlight of Kaplan's Crimson career wasn't a personal triumph--that moment came in his freshman season, when Harvard won its eighth-consecutive Eastern Championship title. Swimming, for Kaplan, has meant much more than individual awards and achievements. The experience of being with the team is one he won't soon forget.

"Going on training trips to Hawaii, we really got to know each other well," Kaplan says. "As one of the captains, a lot of work fell on me, but I would do it again because the guys on the team mean so much to me."

Beyond his athletic career, Harvard has been a learning experience for Kaplan, one which will, like swimming, stay with him for the rest of his life.

"At Harvard more than any other place, people are pretty open. You're exposed to a lot more than you would be anywhere else, at any other school in the country," Kaplan says.

"You have the best of both worlds. We have a great training facility, and we have excellent professors and opportunities to learn," Kaplan says. "That's what you come here for, the education, because you're going to use that the rest of your life. Swimming is only part time."