With GoFundMe help, Olympic mom gets to see son race in Paris

PARIS — Robyn Rabinovitch woke up nervous Friday. She’s always nervous when her son, Ivan Puskovitch, competes in open water swimming events, hoping everyone who goes in the water comes safely back out. 
The Paris Olympics heightened her stress, as she cheered alongside her younger son, Vlad, on the banks of the Seine river for Puskovitch and the other 28 swimmers competing in the men’s 10K marathon final. She said she’d “comfortably breathe” again at the race’s end.
Periodically pausing to cheer when Puskovitch swam by, Rabinovitch was beaming with pride while her son competed in what she described as “swimming in its purest form.” Like so many parents at the Games, her expectations were simply for Puskovitch “to get out of the water and be safe and satisfied with his performance, no matter what place he finishes.”
Puskovitch — the only American in the men’s open water race — had a photo finish for 19th, about seven minutes behind Hungarian gold medalist Kristof Rasovszky, German silver medalist Oliver Klemet and Hungarian bronze medalist David Betlehem. 
“I’ve been crying all day,” Rabinovitch said mid-race. She and Vlad were able to see Puskovitch compete in person thanks in part to a friend raising more than $31,000 through a GoFundMe campaign to finance the trip from the Philadelphia area. 
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“There’s no words. I’m very proud that he is here and he has reached his dream, and I think he’s representing the U.S. with a lot of integrity.”
Puskovitch finished the six-lap race in one hour, 57 minutes and 52.5 seconds.
Unlike his mom, the 23-year-old first-time Olympian tried to remain calm and relaxed ahead of the race, despite a “flurry of emotions,” including excitement, stress and pride. 
As Team USA’s women’s open water swimmers noted Thursday after their event, the Seine’s current was strong, adding unique challenges in an already arduous event. Several swimmers, including Puskovitch, said they’d never competed in a river — usually an ocean, sea or lake. Four of the 29 swimmers who started did not finish.
“It’s the worst and best thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Irish swimmer Daniel Wiffen, who finished 18th and won Paris Olympics gold and bronze medals in the pool. “I was thinking about quitting halfway, but I really drove through, and I’m happy to say that I finished it.”
The current was particularly noticeable, Puskovitch said, on the turns around the 1.67-kilometer loop between Pont Alexandre III and the Pont de l’Alma, “when you just have this wall of water coming at you from the side.”
“All of the men in this field, their approach was much more intellectual coming into this race in these conditions after viewing the women’s race yesterday,” the former USC and West Virginia swimmer said. 
“Everybody came into this race a lot more prepared for how to approach it … because anybody who watched the women’s race yesterday definitely saw that the way that they swam the first lap, as a whole, changed drastically by the time they were swimming the last lap.”
Pleased with his tactical approach to more than six miles in the Seine, Puskovitch said he has “zero regrets.” Plus, he said he had fun — a sentiment certainly not shared by everyone.
And with Puskovitch’s mom and brother in the stands, the open water swimmer knew his race day would be extra meaningful. With him training in Los Angeles, along with challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, they don’t usually get to see him swim.
“You definitely don’t reach this level all alone,” Puskovitch said. “It takes a lot of sacrifice on your part, but a lot of investment, support and sacrifice on the part of close friends and family. And my mom and my brother certainly have made their fair share of sacrifice, to put it lightly. …
“For the first time they get to see me compete — to be at the Olympics — in a number of years, that’s something really special. I’m really happy that they were here to see what I did today, and I’m really happy that they had that opportunity to come and watch some world-class swimming in person.”