66 years of coaching, and still going strong

Marion Kane Elston, born Marion Olson, grew up in San Francisco and started swimming on the Russian River at age 3 near the family's summer home.   By age 13, she started coaching the younger girls on her San Francisco competitive swim team, Crystal Punch, to perform in their annual "Crystal Cades" fund-raising water show, and by age 16 she was coaching all the girls for this annual off-season performance.  

After attending the University of Hawaii and teaching elementary school in San Mateo, Marion married and was hired in 1954 by the San Francisco Recreation Department to coach synchronized swimming four hours per week for $2.75/hour.  That team's success grew into the San Francisco Merionettes and the team received the first national championship title in 1960 followed by 19 consecutive high point titles, not to mention numerous other individual and team awards.

Fast forward to 1981, when Marion was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.  According to the IHSOF website, Marion was "one of the most successful coaches in any sport" and "the world's first great synchronized swimming coach" who "did most to create the quality and class that gave her sport the world recognition that led to World Championships and Olympic acceptance."   Now, 66 years after her humble coaching beginnings, Marion is still going strong at her pool in Santa Rosa's Rincon Valley, Oak Park, with students ranging in age from 6 to 89!

While Marion is best known for her gifts at coaching synchronized swimming, having developed 51 National AAU Synchronized Swimming champions with 303 first place national and international awards by 1981, she has also coached volleyball, track and field, kick ball, and boys soccer, and has no particular favorite.  When asked what led her to coaching other girls on her competitive team, she simply replied, "you just do it" when you're asked to.  Her own success as an athlete began quite unexpectedly: at age 10, her older sister  was the one who wanted to swim competitively and she tagged along.    But it was Marion who went on to participate in 13 Senior National meets and become an Olympic Team finalist. 

What is it that makes Marion such a great coach?  First, she understands the basic elements of body movement, and credits both this understanding and intuitiveness in being able to pick out the elements that will "get to the heart of what will make someone better."   She says the underlying cause of a problem in sports is often speed, design, or control.  She also enjoys the challenge of coaching, sees talent in people of all ages, and believes every person she coaches has unique qualities which can be improved upon.   She simply meets her students where they are and  "matches their motivation" to improve.

Marion also credits her parents, Ethyl and Ed Olson, for supporting her athletic and  coaching careers. Her mother, Ethyl , was the "bedrock of the family"  and her father, Ed, became assistant manager of the 1968 Olympic Swim Team  and president of the local AAU.

 

The Olsons also helped finance Marion's purchase of Oak Park Swim Club in 1973, a family-friendly local pool and tennis club, which allowed her to continue coaching while raising her four children.  In her spare time, Marion also recruited/choreographed 36 former students to perform in the 1975 movie "Funny Lady," and Oak Park became the headquarters of the Marion L. Kane International Synchro School where she coached athletes from around the world from 1974-1982.  She also produced professional water shows at the World's Fair in New Orleans (1984) and Brisbane (1988); and another show in Hong Kong (1990). 

With 66 years of experience, one change Marion has noticed in the students she coaches in all age groups is that there's so much going on in people's lives now that it's harder to get her students to slow their minds down, feel their bodies, and focus on the task at hand.  Children today seem to expect "instant success," but Marion stresses that it takes time to perfect new skills. 

Marion Kane Elston is clearly passionate about what she does, and believes you should keep doing what you love to do.  I'll take that as a stated intention to keep coaching for years to come (lucky for her students...including myself!) 

In the words of this Wise Elder and gifted coach, if you enjoy it, regardless of your age, "just do it!"  In fact, why not head out to Oak Park, and perhaps you can make your own synchro dreams a reality?  At age 90, Marion's most senior swimmer is also a national champion, Barbara Brown of Napa, who was so inspired in her mid-50s to do just that!