South African Olympian finds Valley's water appealing
Feb. 23, 2003
If you ask Olympic swimmer Helene Muller how she got from her native South Africa to the Valley, she'll turn her head to the side, arch her eyebrows and say, "Well, you know I didn't come straight here."
Muller's path led around the world to international swim meets, including the Olympics in Atlanta and Sydney.
It led through Nebraska, where she went to college and met her best friend, who happened to be from Fawn.
Through her college years, when Muller couldn't fly half-way around the world to be home for holidays, she spent those vacations with Beth Karaica's family here.
So, after graduating from college and retiring from swimming, Muller moved to Murrysville to be near her closest American friends. Now, she's also happy to be near her boyfriend, Tarentum native Mark Rovnan.
And though she's retired from competition, Muller can't leave swimming behind entirely. These days, she works out with the Highlands High School swim team, which she is helping coach this year.
Growing up in Johannesburg, Muller said she fell in love with swimming at a young age.
"Everyone in South Africa has a swimming pool because it's hot," she said.
At age 5, Muller's mother made her learn to swim. At 6, she was on a swim team.
By 13, Muller was competing in her first international meet.
"I was crazy for swimming," Muller said. "If my mother was late taking me to practice, I'd get on my bike and pedal, like, four kilometers to get there."
Before retiring last summer, Muller swam the 50, 100 and 200 yard freestyle.
She represented South Africa in the Olympics in 1996 and 2000.
By 2002, however, Muller said she'd had enough of the intense time and training that world-class swimming demanded. After finishing her last race at the Commonwealth Games in England last summer, Muller said she burst into tears of relief and announced her retirement.
Though she was raised during apartheid, Muller said she was largely unaware of her country's deep racial divide, or its pariah image around the world.
"I grew up in apartheid, but I didn't know it," Muller said. "I have very liberal parents and I didn't know there was a difference (in South Africa) between black and white."
Living in the United States and reading books about Africa as an adult have given Muller a new perspective on many things she was taught in her all-white schools as a child. Text books in South Africa reflected the government's propaganda of the time, Muller said.
"I realize how indoctrinated I was a child," she said.
She said she occasionally gets negative reactions from Americans who associate white South Africans only with apartheid. Though it can be hard, Muller said she's learned to shrug off rude comments.
That the Valley might find her exotic seems lost on Muller as she coaches Highlands swimmers with the affectionate growls of a devoted drill instructor.
Muller said Americans frequently mistake her accent for Swedish, German or Norwegian, which makes her laugh.
It's the Valley that has a slightly exotic feel, she insists. Though she's not crazy about Northern Hemisphere winter weather, Muller said the Valley's beautiful rivers and green landscape are a nice contrast to mostly arid South Africa.
She also enjoys some American sports.
"I'm a very big Penguins fan," Muller said. "Hockey is fun to watch because it's continuous -- it keeps going."
American football and baseball are too slow to hold her attention.
But when she went with friends to watch the Pirates play the Cubs last summer, Muller said she couldn't get over the excitement of seeing Sammy Sosa close up.
"I just kept saying, 'Guys! It's Sammy Sosa! Right there!" Muller said, giggling.
Though she's enjoying her American life, Muller said she does miss her family in South Africa and likely will one day go home.
"It's very hard. I'm very tight with my family," she said. "I think, deep down, they want me to go home."
Post-apartheid South Africa is burdened with a new set of problems, Muller said. The economy is poor, which is one reason she decided to stay in the U.S. after graduation.
The country, like most of Africa, is suffering under a staggering pandemic of AIDS.
Muller received dual degrees in biological sciences and psychology, hoping to pursue a medical career.
She's working now as a nurse's aide at Alle-Kiski Medical Center in Harrison and hoping to be accepted at physician's assistant school.
Someday, she said she'd like to help AIDS patients in her home country.
"It's heartbreaking," she said.
Muller said she's disheartened by how little Americans and Europeans understand about the devastating effect of AIDS in African countries.
Health experts estimate as many as a quarter of all people in South Africa are infected with HIV or have AIDS -- a fact that she said most Americans as surprised to hear.
"I want to do something to help all the people with AIDS," Muller said. "That's a passion of mine, and I hope someday I can make a difference."
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