Nick Dworet. Courtesy: family.
By Kevin Deutsch
Nicholas Dworet had it all: discipline, drive, intelligence, and the talent to go as far as his swimming dreams would take him, all the way to Olympic gold.
But the mass shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School ended Dworet’s hopes for a historic swimming career, killing him along with sixteen others during the February 2018 massacre.
Now, a new book chronicling the champion swimmer’s life is revealing unknown facets of Dworet’s biography and athletic feats, sharing his inspiring journey “as a competitive swimmer in South Florida and his mother’s [Annika] native Sweden, which he had hoped to represent in the 2020 Olympic Games,” according to a press release from the book’s publisher, CG Sports Publishing.
Annika, who looks a lot like Nick, moved to Coral Springs with Mitch when Nick was just over one year old. A few years later, Nick’s brother, Alexander, now 15, was born. Both of their children learned to swim at the Coral Springs Aquatic Complex.
Soul of a Swimmer “is the story of how a community comes together to support a child with raw talent and chronicles Nick’s development into an accomplished and ambitious competitive swimmer,” the publisher said.
“Through interviews with his parents, coaches, friends, and teammates, author Carla Albano presents an athlete’s coming-of-age story and leaves the reader wistful for what certainly was a bright future for an exceptional young man.”
Albano, herself a competitive swimmer, first learned of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting while training for a long-distance ocean swim in the Keys.
A resident of Hollywood, Florida, Albano, said she returned home to a community in mourning. When she learned a swimmer was among the victims, she felt compelled to tell his story so that “we all know what we’ve missed by his not being here,” Albano said.
Carla Albano.
“Nick had the whole world ahead of him, and nothing was going to hold him back. I have no doubt he would have achieved his Olympic dreams and made us all proud.”
The book, which went on sale this week, follows Dworet’s journey from a precocious toddler taking swim lessons to a high school athletic star signing a letter of intent to swim for the University of Indianapolis.
Albano said she is donating all proceeds from Soul of a Swimmer to the Nicholas Dworet Memorial Trust.
Book cover of Soul of a Swimmer. The story of Nicholas Dworet.
“The money will be used to support swim lessons, swim clinics, and scholarships for swimmers to attend college, so that Nick’s legacy lives on in the pool and beyond,” the publisher said.
Soul of a Swimmer is available from Amazon and wherever books are sold.
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Author Profile
- Kevin Deutsch is an award-winning crime journalist and author. A graduate of Florida International University, Kevin has worked on staff at The Miami Herald, New York Daily News, and The Palm Beach Post.
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