In a city teeming with the world’s most diverse sporting crowd, two LSU freshmen couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than Americans. Tiger swimmers Colin Finnegan and Grant Grenfell garnered international notoriety during the London Olympics, donning American flag bodysuits while watching their chosen sport performed at the highest level. “We knew that we stood out in a crowd, but I don’t think we fully expected the reaction the suits got,” Grenfell said. “It was ridiculous. Probably 50 or 60 people asked to take pictures.” Out of those 50 or 60 was one famous American Olympian. Backstroke specialist and five-time Olympic gold medalist Aaron Peirsol couldn’t resist the stars and stripes, posing for a photo with the pair after the morning heats on July 31. “There were a few officials and media members snapping shots of us, which was cool and all,” Finnegan said. “Next thing we know, the world-record holder - one of our swimming icons - is tapping us on the shoulder, asking us for a picture.” The recent Catholic High graduates’ face time was just beginning. NBC captured them on-air during its swimming coverage, and a writer from the network promptly pulled them aside for a brief interview. Within hours, an article was on NBC’s Olympics website. Grenfell and Finnegan were suddenly America’s most famous fans. LSU’s Swimming and Diving Twitter spread the word, the friends’ Facebook photos garnered hundreds of likes and messages poured into their email accounts. “I just saw these kids in full bodysuits because our [sports information director] posted a link about these guys decked out in the American flag,” said LSU Swimming Coach Dave Geyer, who has worked with the duo for years in club swimming. “How could you not laugh? If any two guys in my time in Baton Rouge would do something like that, it would be Grant and Colin. That’s just their personality.” Despite their red, white and blue pride, the idea for the suits had origins in a different color: orange. During their high school days, the pair, along with other friends, sported orange bodysuits to Catholic High football games every fall Friday night. Last spring, with LSU in their imminent futures, Finnegan and Grenfell began searching for a purple-and-gold equivalent. Instead, they found London calling. “We decided to skip out on normal beach or cruise senior trip stuff because the Olympics were on the table,” Finnegan said. “While looking for LSU bodysuits for games here, we found the American flag ones. It just planted the seed in our minds.” While their pool presence may have brought them fame, fun wasn’t the duo’s only objective at the London Aquatics Centre. They were studying their sport’s elite. Competitive swimmers from an early age, each will swim for LSU this season and both won team and individual state titles at Catholic High. Grenfell is on scholarship and won 5A state titles last November in the 100-yard fly, 100-yard backstroke and the 200-yard medley relay. Finnegan will walk on to the program, having also captured state titles in the 100-yard breaststroke and the medley relay with Grenfell. “I was trying to learn, see all the swimmers’ form up close because we had seats in the ninth row on our second day [at the pool],” Grenfell said. “We were that close, and I still had binoculars out to zoom in on the strokes.” Comical images like that and their close proximity to the action drew more than American eyeballs to their patriotic antics. “A girl from Australia was sitting in front of us and got a text from her dad, who was back in Australia,” Grenfell said. “She told us that he asked if she was sitting in front of the American flag guys. We were just shocked.” The two didn’t break out the suits except on that day at the Aquatics Centre, but their Olympic experience wasn’t limited to the pool. They attended events across the full spectrum of sports, including women’s basketball, beach volleyball, men’s boxing, the first night of the heptathlon finals and the women’s 10,000-meter track final. Finnegan called the spectacles “unreal.” Thousands might use that word to describe attending the Olympics, but the Baton Rouge natives are the ones who came back with the story of a lifetime. “Why be like the other 500,000 normal fans there?” Geyer said of his longtime pupils. “They wanted to be different. There was no mistaking them.”
 
—- Contact Chris Abshire at [email protected]; Twitter: AbshireTDR