‘You never know’: 44 years later, Wichita swimmer Ron Neugent ponders lost Olympics

Every four years during the Summer Olympic Games, there’s still a part of Ron Neugent that hurts.

It’s been 44 years since the Wichita native earned the right to represent his country in men’s swimming in the 1980 Olympics, only for the United States to boycott the Moscow Games to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

It was the crowning achievement in a decorated swimming career of Neugent, which added one more honor this month when he was one of 12 athletes inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, but it also left him with his greatest “What if?” moment.

“I didn’t dwell on it a lot when I was younger, but there’s still a part of me that wishes we could have gone and competed,” Neugent said. “It’s an emotional time (during the Olympics), like I’m sure it is for all of the athletes on the 1980 team, because we didn’t get to participate.”

Following a standout prep career with the Wichita Swim Club and East High, Neugent earned a scholarship to the prestigious SMU program and became an All-America swimmer in the 1,650-meter freestyle. He gained national recognition in 1979 when he won the gold medal in the 1,500-meter freestyle at the World University Games.

That was the victory that put Neugent on the U.S. team’s radar.

“The USA team head coach (George Haines) came up to me after the race,” Neugent said, “and said, ‘Ron, if you dedicate yourself for the next year, I think you have a real shot to make the Olympic team.’ It blew me away that someone had that kind of belief in me.”

Neugent was studying pre-med at the time and decided the workload would be too much while he chased his Olympic dream, so he temporarily decided to drop out of school, quit his job and train full-time in Wichita for the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials.

President Jimmy Carter had already announced the U.S. boycott before the Trials started in late July in Irvine, Calif., but Neugent was not deterred from achieving his goal.

He was the fastest American in the 400-meter individual medley entering the Trials and qualified for the finals with the second-fastest time, but suffered heartbreak on the second day of the meet when he missed out on a top-three finish in the finals to qualify for the Olympic team by 1.55 seconds.

“I remember touching the wall in the 400 IM and seeing the four by my name on the electronic scoreboard,” Neugent said. “I put my head under water and just screamed. I had to let out the disappointment because I really believed that was my best chance to make the team.”

After missing out on qualifying in two other events, Neugent had one final chance to make the team on the last day of the Trials. But he was seeded eighth in the 1,500-meter freestyle and the gold and silver medalists from the 1976 Olympics were swimming in the race.

Further stacking the odds against Neugent was his spot in the race: the dreaded Lane 8.

“Back then, we didn’t have the prescription goggles that they make today, so I couldn’t really see past a few lanes over,” Neugent said. “But I did remember seeing the splashing in the middle of the pool where the top swimmers were seeded, so I knew I must be doing OK. I think that gave me a little adrenaline boost knowing I was close.”

Neugent held on for a third-place finish to successfully reach the pinnacle of American swimming by becoming an Olympian.

Although he never competed in the Games, Neugent did feel some fulfillment of achieving his dream after putting his life on pause for an entire year. He did not qualify for the team in the 1984 Trials.

“You never know how you would have do at the Games,” Neugent said. “There would have been a whole lot of excitement and adrenaline in a situation like that, just like at the World University Games where I was seeded fourth and won that event. And just like the Olympic Trials, where I performed beyond what other people’s expectations were of me. So you just never know how it would have gone.”

Following the Olympic year, Neugent returned to college at the University of Kansas and finished a sterling career that included five program records, two Big 8 records and a pair of Big 8 championships.

He was part of the 1981 U.S. national team that competed internationally, then set the American record in 1982 for a short-course 1,500-meter freestyle in a time of 15:01.77.

He served on the U.S. Olympic committee board of directors and athletes advisory council and was the vice president of United States swimming for a time. In 2007, Neugent also received a Congressional Gold Medal for his role on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team.

After graduating from college, Neugent returned to Wichita and has worked the past 32 years as an orthodontist. He still swims to this day and his Master’s career includes 15 top-10 all-time performances.

His son, Luke, recently graduated from Andover and was a state-medalist swimmer, while his daughter, Natalie, was a three-time individual state champion swimmer in high school and followed in her father’s footsteps to swim collegiately at SMU.

“I feel like I owe a lot to the sport of swimming,” Neugent said. “Swimming has taught me a lot in life. It’s taught me to be dedicated, it’s taught me to not give up and it also taught me to live an active lifestyle.”

To be remembered for his swimming career all these decades later, Neugent was proud to be honored with his induction to the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame earlier this month.

“It made me feel really good that my home state was still thinking about what I had done 44 years ago,” Neugent said. “I was born in Wichita, raised here and moved back here after college to live because I really like this area. So for Kansas to say they want me to be part of their Sports Hall of Fame, that was a special, special thing.”