December 17, 2007
Paul Fortoul, 1958-2007
On Saturday, December 8th, the local swimming community lost one of its greatest assets, Coach Paul Fortoul, to complications arising from kidney cancer. Paul was a coach, mentor and friend to countless swimmers, and his dedication, intelligence and passion was felt on every level of the swimming community.
Paul began teaching and coaching aquatics in New York in the mid-1970s. As a coach he was dependable, demanding and supportive. Known for his carefully calculated workouts, his coaching combined swimming techniques, tips, encouragement and mathematics. He was a kind of coaching calculator: keeping track of splits and synchronizing lanes with different workouts into a symphony of swimmers that would finish at the same time. He worked with varying age levels and abilities, but expected swimmers' attention and dedication. In return, he believed in them whether they were swimming for fitness, fun or competition. Paul not only made people better swimmers but helped build their love of aquatics. He also followed his swimmers to open water events to cheer them, and sometimes even coach them, as Francine Alfandary recalls:
In 2003 Paul trained us for a four-person MIMS relay. On race day he called us throughout the swim to offer advice and encouragement. As I was about to jump in for my final leg, terrified by the sudden choppiness of the water, Paul told me to relax, take long strokes, and let my legs drift. His words gave me a surge of confidence. I swam my best leg of the day, bringing our team to the finish line just ahead of the rival 4-person relay team.
But Paul was more than just a coach. He was fiercely active in nearly every aspect of the swimming community, available to work the clock or officiate at meets, volunteer at other events, and serve on any number of committees. He was active in the creation of the Metropolitan Swimming Hall of Fame, recently helped rewrite the MetroSwim By-Laws, and in 1986, he was a founding member of a group that became Team New York Aquatics. And more recently, he coached a number of teams part-time, including serving as the masters coach at Asphalt Green and team coach at Fieldston High School.
Paul is survived by his parents, his sister and the entire New York swimming community.
Few have served the swimming community in our area and in the gay/lesbian aquatics movement in such an enduring way. Paul understood the intricacies of swimming rules, statistics, by-laws and policies better than anyone, and was able to cite chapter and verse of every aquatic sport rule book. In an unseen and unheralded effort of enormous dimension he made all of us safer as we swam, and made our leaders more accountable. His spirit prowls the decks of many pools, arriving probably even now — as he often did — in a hurry, with an impossibly bulging briefcase; but quickly deploying himself, stopwatch in hand, workout in mind, breast pocket stuffed with pens and notes to self, sporting under-combed hair, and with glasses perched askew on his nose, reminding us, exhorting and inspiring us — with utter equanimity to all swimmers, big and small, slow and fast, young and old — to reach our potential as athletes and maybe, if we thought about it, to do the same as human beings.
— Conrad Johnson, Head Coach, Team New York Aquatics
