Ivan Puskovitch: His U.S. Olympic dreams began in New London

New London — She carries the memories with her as if they're a diary, a keepsake, that flourishes with age. And when Marie Ellzey Rabinovitch takes to her living room sofa in New London at 1:30 a.m. Aug. 9 to watch her grandson swim in the Paris Olympics, part of her will be back at Pequot Point Beach, an oasis in the city's south end where it all began.Rabinovitch's mind still runs like a current back to the summers her grandson, Ivan Puskovitch, used to spend here. The days when he first experienced the open water, the days that led to his place representing the United States in men's marathon swimming, an event whose required endurance so perfectly illustrates what Puskovitch has endured.Ivan Puskovitch, 23, has conquered bullying, homelessness stemming from an illness to his mother and a concussive bicycle injury with subsequent plastic surgery, among other travails, only to prevail.And he'll swim in the Seine early next month, trying to become the first gold medalist in men's marathon swimming in U.S. Olympic history."The first time he stepped foot in an ocean (Long Island Sound) was at Pequot Point Beach as a four-year-old," Ellzey Rabinovitch said this past weekend. "The first time in this kind of water. He had been in pools since he was a baby. I do remember that day."Puskovitch's mother, Robyn, who was born in New London and graduated from New London High (even won a journalism award from The Day as a high school student), would take Ivan and his brother, Vlad, from their home in Pennsylvania to visit Ellzey Rabinovitch every summer."Robyn always loved the water," Ellzey Rabinovitch said. "She started swimming as a baby, too. And the boys just had a natural love for it as well. It was a sunny day and they were ecstatic because they'd never been in the sand. Ivan took to it like a fish. It was the very first time when they ever saw any body of water that wasn't a lake or a pool."And to think that now this strapping young man with the Adonis body and enviable, flowing blond locks actually cried the first time his mother suggested he try to swim in the waters of New London."He cried the first time his mother said he had to try to swim in it because it wasn't like a lake. It had a different flow with waves and a current. He was frightened," Ellzey Rabinovitch said. "(Fellow Pequot Point Beach member) Ann LaPlante was there that day, too. We were both in tears because Ivan was so upset."Until …"Until the first lap," Ellzey Rabinovitch said. "He loved it. It was like he was born for it. He came out with a big grin on his face. He was the happiest. From then on, he loved the open water. They came back I don't know how many summers because Ivan especially wanted to swim in our water. He wanted to go to the beach."Puskovitch set several youth swimming records in Pennsylvania and later earned a scholarship to the University of Southern California. Yet Puskovitch pondered quitting the sport after a coaching change at Southern Cal led to allegations of physical and emotional abuse of the team members.After briefly transferring to West Virginia University, Puskovitch spoke to Mohammad Khadembashi, the head coach at TSM Aquatics, an elite swim club in Santa Monica, in April of 2022. The career was back on, back again in the Pacific Ocean. Yet to fund his career and Olympic dream, Puskovitch took a part-time job for a food-delivery company, riding his bike along the streets in and around USC's campus.Not long after he made the U.S. National team in June 2023 — and with the Olympic-qualifying race at the World Aquatics Championships fewer than eight months away — he was hit by a car while making deliveries.Ellzey Rabinovitch still has photos of her grandson's tattered face that required emergency facial reconstructive surgery and kept him out of the water for two months. With the biggest race of his life looming.Puskovitch had five months to prepare for the World Aquatic Championships. Khadembashi told the Philadelphia Inquirer, "We had to rebuild. But we never lost hope, never doubted that he was able."Perhaps this is what happens with a young man in a sport of endurance whose life endurances had already belied his age.And so came the fateful, grateful night in February when people all over the world awaited the results from the World Aquatic Championships. Puskovitch swam the race in Doha, Qatar. Mom waited in Pennsylvania. Gram in New London. Khadembashi in California. Doha is seven hours ahead of Easten Standard Time. Puskovitch had to finish in the top 15.And then for the glorious irony: The kid who cried on Pequot Beach when his mom asked him to swim for the first time tried his hand at the special gift the Olympics give us — emotional release — unloading tears of joy because he finished 14th and made the U.S. Olympic team. Except that salt waters of Doha dried his tear ducts."Ivan sent me a text about the good news," Ellzey Rabinovitch said. "I started tearing up and crying because of everything that he's been through. This was his dream and he finally accomplished it. He was just ecstatic. His voice — I've never heard him that happy. I know what he's been through. He's not a privileged kid. A lot of the kids in this sport have private coaches. Nothing's ever been given to him."Ellzey Rabinovitch, one proud grandma, gets to revel in Ivan and his triumphs. Her other grandson, Vlad, is an accomplished percussionist and grad assistant at West Chester University with a degree in music education, a subject he plans on teaching. Vlad was also a swimmer, diver and water polo player.Ivan Puskovitch may be the best example yet to trumpet the mystical charm of the Olympics, the three-week emotional binge that fills our hearts and releases our tears at the same time."We'll be in front of the TV at 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 9," Ellzey Rabinovitch said. "Our cousins are flying in from California to watch with us. We can't wait."This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro