Soren Lindholm is akin to a legend in the making. After facing what might curtail most, he picked up where he started, reinventing the wheel so he could once again fly fast through air, snow and water.
“I came to love swimming because I grew up in the summers spending time in the Northwoods in Minnesota,” Lindholm told The Sopris Sun. “Once I got hurt it was a great way to exercise — just being kind of weightless in the water.”
Lindholm was born in Boulder, but essentially grew up in the Valley after moving here when he was just 5 years old. He attended Waldorf School on the Roaring Fork and then Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS), where he graduated from in 2018.
His junior year, and second season on the CRMS telemark big-mountain ski team, he broke his back after dropping a cliff while competing in Grand Targhee.
“I’m a T-12 paraplegic,” he stated. “I still ski. I still do a bunch of stuff.” It took a little time, but 2021 was the year he “really started getting back out.”
There’s no need to dwell on the past, said Lindholm. “It’s one of those things that’s not really worth thinking about, because you can’t really change it.” And while there may be a part of him that misses competing, he said that “the fun aspect overrides that. It’s still skiing. It’s still hanging out with friends outside.”
Kayo Ogilby was Lindholm’s biology and geology teacher at CRMS, as well as the coach of the big-mountain team at the time of Lindholm’s accident. The two have remained close to this day, fishing on the Roaring Fork, skiing or just catching up when they get the chance.
“I don’t even really know how to put words to it, but [it was the most] challenging, distressful, emotional moment of my career, if not my life,” said Ogilby of Lindholm’s accident. “He was most likely going to win that competition,” he added.
Today, Ogilby is glad to know Lindholm is still making turns, noting that “watching him ski on a sit-ski is impressive — he’s full send.”
Ogilby and Lindholm also bonded over the fact that they both spend part of their summers in the Northwoods and enjoy open-water swimming in its lakes. And after Lindholm graduated, Ogilby first pitched a crazy idea: escaping Alcatraz. The Neptune Swimming Foundation, based in Arizona, holds an annual weekend event in the Bay Area, with the Alcatraz Swim one day and the Golden Gate Bridge Swim the next. All proceeds from the event go toward teaching kids to swim and preventing drownings in Maricopa County. Lindholm wasn’t quite at a place in his recovery to meet the challenge then, so the breakout was put on hold. That is, until this year.
Ogilibly comes from a family of strong swimmers. His daughter’s, Amélie and Laia, have joined their dad for the event in San Francisco. The whole family headed out this year, mostly to watch, and Lindholm jumped onboard.
Since December, he’s been training a few days a week, preparing to defy the urban legend and swim toward freedom from the notorious penitentiary. Not only were former inmates of the prison duped into believing the swim is a near impossible feat, but the general public has fallen for the claim as well thanks to tall tales and films, such as Don Siegel’s “Escape from Alcatraz.”
“I think that was a psychological thing the prison used. They’d tell everybody that if you touched the water, you’d drown and get eaten by sharks,” said Lindholm. “It was challenging, but it was not the hardest thing in the world.”
For the Alcatraz Swim, participants deboard from boats near the island and aim for the shore of San Francisco, about 1.4 miles away.
“The two biggest challenges are the water temperature and the current,” explained Ogilby. “They drop you at slack tide, and the longer you’re in the water, the more powerful the currents get.”
Lindholm is likely one of just a handful of adaptive swimmers who participate. He and Ogilby swam both events with no breaks, other than checking in on one another with little more than a nod or a couple of quick strategic words exchanged while on the move.
Part way through the Golden Gate Swim (1.2 miles), while coming up on an eddy, the duo came within about 10 feet of a sea lion. It was the first time Ogilby, who was participating in the event for his sixth time, had seen one from the water.
“Part of the power of witnessing his journey has been him being able to fully get back to pursuing these passions,” said Ogilby.
“I’m super thankful to Kayo and his family for letting me tag along,” Lindholm humbly concluded.