The McCormacs Love For Swimming, Competing Runs Deep

When they were little kids, the McCormac brothers — Ethan, Owen, Aidan and Emmet — were lucky enough to have a swimming pool in the backyard of their Manorville home. But they did not swim in it in the traditionally unstructured way common of most children.

Instead, the pool became a proving ground, a place to not only satisfy their seemingly innate desire to be in perpetual motion, but to move their bodies with purpose — the purpose, of course, being to compete.

Ethan, the oldest of the four, would organize mini-triathlons in the backyard — at his direction, his younger brothers, as well as other neighborhood kids, would swim, ride bikes and run, competing fiercely for supremacy. During an interview in early February in East Hampton — where the family has lived since 2015 — Emmet, now 13, lights up talking about those days, when he was doing his best to keep up with his brothers despite being just 6 years old at the time. Sitting by his side, Owen, 16, and Aidan, 15, also eagerly shared memories of that time, as their father, Fintan McCormac, smiled.

Not much has changed since then.

All four boys have become talented swimmers, both for the East Hampton Hurricanes YMCA team and the older three for East Hampton High School’s varsity squad, while also participating on the school’s cross country team. They’ve competed in youth and adult triathlons and have all been part of the East Hampton Town Junior Lifeguarding Program, with Ethan and Owen rising up through the ranks as students and then instructors.

Their father, a Nassau County detective who spends the bulk of his free time engaging in the same activities, has been a big influence, encouraging the boys and helping to facilitate their gravitation toward an active lifestyle. Their mother, Jennifer Lyons, was a collegiate swimmer as well.

Mr. McCormac emigrated from his native Ireland when he was just 19 years old, and his first job was a lifeguarding position at Jones Beach. He’d enjoyed swimming from a young age, a love he was determined to pass on to his sons. He remains a certified ocean lifeguard, and is a veteran of Ironman triathlons, while also running Reilly Cycling Tours — which gives guided cycling tours in several European countries a few times annually — in his hard-to-imagine-it-exists spare time. Passing on his love for swimming and competition was important to Mr. McCormac, and it proved to be easy.

“They were always so active; I never had to prod them to do stuff,” he said. “They just did it themselves.”

Early on, the McCormac boys were enrolled in the Three Village Swim Club, based in East Setauket, but Mr. McCormac soon switched them over to the East Hampton Hurricanes YMCA team, preferring the club’s more laid back philosophy and approach to training, where encouragement takes a premium over a more intense, results-based approach, Mr. McCormac said. Ultimately, the family moved to East Hampton because of their dedication to the program.

That dedication is paying off, and Ethan is so far the clearest example of that. He parlayed a successful high school career — in which he qualified for states three times and set six individual Bonac records — into a spot on the Marist men’s swimming team.

Owen, 16, is following closely in his older brother’s footsteps and said he considers him to be his primary role model, even as he recognizes the challenges that come with that.

“I’ve always looked up to him because he’s the star swimmer of East Hampton,” he said. “It’s hard to fill those shoes, but it’s pretty cool.”

Owen is hoping to swim in college as well and has his sights set firmly on that goal. Aidan and Emmet, meanwhile, are still strong competitive swimmers but have become increasingly passionate about running. Ethan is described by his father and brothers as the prototypical “Type A” first child, who managed to balance the grind of the fall months when he was committed to the varsity cross country team and still swimming for the Hurricanes and keeping up with schoolwork, something Aidan did this past fall. Owen, a junior, ultimately decided to stop pursuing cross country and maintain a focus on swimming, while Aidan, a 15-year-old sophomore, says he is gravitating more toward running, even as he is still a member of the varsity swim team and Hurricanes.

“I’ve never been as much of a swimmer as Ethan and Owen,” Aidan said. “Me and Ethan used to run together for cross country and then swim afterwards. I like running a bit more than swimming, so I’ve been turning in that direction.”

While Aidan — who his father describes as a “jack-of-all-trades,” loves the challenge of long distance running, he added that he is like Owen in the fact that he prefers the shorter distances, like the 50 freestyle, when he’s in the pool.

Emmet, an eighth-grader, smiles shyly as he says he’s “not as good yet” as his brothers in swimming. In a sign of brotherly solidarity, both Owen and Aidan immediately chime in, telling him: “You’ll get there one day.”

There is plenty of sacrifice — not to mention cost —in having four children involved in multiple sports, which Mr. McCormac acknowledges. From the juggling of practices, meets and schoolwork, to squeezing in time to see Ethan compete at Marist, all while holding down his job as a Nassau County detective, Mr. McCormac says they are constantly busy — and also constantly grocery shopping at Costco.

“These guys certainly eat,” he said with a laugh. “Swimming is a heavy commitment sport; it’s a lot of time. It’s also an expensive sport when you have four guys doing it, and everything that comes along with that, like traveling, hotels. We’re busy all the time.”

The boys live with their father and spend the bulk of their time with him, and he credits both his girlfriend, Lorraine, and the larger network of parents in the East Hampton community for helping to make it all happen, from splitting time driving kids to and from practices and games, and other shows of support. He also credits the boys themselves.

“They make it easy for me because they all get along,” he said. “There’s no drama. People used to come up to me and say, ‘Are these your kids? How did you do this?’ But they’re very disciplined.” (At this point in the interview, he turns to them and smiles, telling them, “You guys owe me for this later.”)

“They’re just very good kids,” he added. “So I’m very lucky in that regard.”

Staying busy has its perks too, of course.

“Kids don’t get in trouble when they’re face down in the pool, looking at a black line every night,” Mr. McCormac said. “They know what it’s like to put a lot of work into something. So I think it’s been great for them.”

According to Mr. McCormac, his sons never gravitated to other sports despite their obvious athletic abilities.

“I tried to put them in soccer and baseball when they were little, but they didn’t like it,” he said, recalling how, as a child, Ethan would routinely run up and down their block, from mailbox to mailbox, asking his father to clock his times. “Ethan said, ‘I don’t like baseball; you’re just standing around all the time.’”

True to form, the boys fill their summer hours with activity as well. Both Ethan and Owen work as ocean lifeguards, thanks to their training from the junior lifeguarding program. (They’ve also accompanied their father on European cycling trips run through his company). Aidan said he likes how competitive swimming helps improve his lifeguarding skills, and Owen added that he likes the individual component of swimming as compared to more traditional team sports.

“I like it because you’re not relying on anyone else,” Owen said.

Emmet said he enjoys the camaraderie that comes from being on a team and supporting teammates.

“I like doing it because you get to see all your friends and compare your times and see who’s the best, and it’s sort of fun,” he said.

While they share many of the same fundamental traits, the boys all have their distinct personalities. Mr. McCormac described Ethan as “extremely driven,” a competitor who hates losing in general, and a self-starter who rarely hits the snooze button.

Owen “has morphed into that,” according to Mr. McCormac, who said it didn’t come as naturally to him initially.

“He’s Mr. Charisma,” he said of Owen. “He’s the talkative one. Aidan is more the intellectual type, who might end up at an Ivy League school.” (Aidan shakes his head no to this). “He has a great personality, he’s very funny.”

To describe his youngest son, Mr. McCormac tells a story about a paddleboard race at junior lifeguarding nationals. Emmet was poised to win his heat, but when he looked back and noticed someone behind him had fallen off his board, he swam back to help.

“That’s something I would not do,” Aidan said, laughing, as Owen agreed with him.

“He’s a lot more selfless than the rest of us.”

Emmet may be held up by his siblings and father as the role model for kindness and model behavior, but according to Craig Brierley, East Hampton varsity swimming head coach and a coach with the Hurricanes as well, all four boys have all the elements a coach desires.

“They’re a great family,” he said. “They’re being raised very well. Ethan and Owen are very similar where they just love to race, and they love to swim fast, and that’s served them well when they compete. They have a really good approach when they race; they understand that it is just that; it’s just a race, and it doesn’t define them. They can accept what happens when it’s done.”

Brierley also complimented Mr. McCormac for his approach to parenting athletes.

“When you’re a coach, you often have issues with parents because they can get overly involved. And I can say this as a parent: You have to let the child own their sport,” he said. “It’s theirs. As a parent, you just support them and help them in whatever they need, and your job is to say, ‘I love you and love to watch you compete.’ That’s what Fintan does. He just lets them do what they do.”

As for the future, while Aidan and Emmet are exploring their growing interest in running along with swimming, and Owen is hoping to follow his brother’s path and continue swimming in college, Ethan’s next goal is to qualify for Olympic Trials one day. He recently competed in the MAAC Championships in Buffalo, where he finished with four medals for top placings in the 50 and 100 freestyle races, and on the team’s 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams. His time of 44.88 seconds in the 100 free is one of the best times in the region.

“Making it to Olympics would be one thing, but Olympic Trials is doable,” he said.

He credits his father for his continued progression in swimming, saying, “He pushed me to be the athlete I am today.”

Of course, knowing it’s a family tradition that he carried on from his father and has passed down to his siblings, from those early days of unsanctioned backyard triathlons, is a satisfying feeling as well.

“I love being the oldest,” he said. “Having my brothers at my side is always a great feeling.”