Pendletonian heads to the Olympics
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, July 24th, 2024 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Pendleton native son Rob “Robby” Collins is at his first Olympics. He will be the swim coach for Peru at the games. Before he departed he talked about the long road that now sees him overseeing Peru’s two swimmers who qualified for the Olympic games.
Collins is the son of Judge Rob Collins and long-time high school swimming coach Donna Collins. His mother did not enroll him in swimming lessons because she wanted to make a competitor out of him. She did it to save his life.
“When I was a toddler, we lived off of Northwest Despain,” Collins said. “Whenever I’d come out of the shower, I’d run to the river. I was 3 or 4 years old and Mom was petrified.”
She enrolled him in swimming lessons and he said he always had a natural inclination towards water. What followed was a life filled with summers at what is now the Pendleton Aquatic Center. He swam, he coached, he life-guarded, and he graduated from Pendleton High School in 1999 with a college scholarship.
“So many moments of my life are encapsulated in that pool,” he said of the Pendleton facility.
Collins went onto swim in college but faced rough waters as he grew older. He left college with only 15 hours remaining for a bachelor’s of arts degree majoring in political science. As he grappled with becoming an adult, he found himself coaching a recreational swim team in the San Francisco Bay area.
“That was one of the most rewarding things in my life,” he said. “It saved my life.”
He went back to school, starting from scratch and earned a bachelor’s of science degree in kinesiology and a master’s degree in sports management. He also became nationally recognized as a coach for recreational teams in California. He then took a similar position in Knoxville for Tennessee Aquatics.
He was then hired as an assistant swim coach for the prestigious program at the University of Tennessee. His wife, Sarah Collins, is also an assistant coach there. That started him on the road to Paris. Two swimmers representing Peru qualified for the Olympics. They are Joaquin Vargas, a UT swimmer, and McKenna DeBever, a professional swimmer who trains at Tennessee Aquatics. They tapped Collins to be their coach.
So, the toddler who ran to the Umatilla River will now be on a boat on the River Seine wearing red and white for Peru. The opening ceremony Friday will be televised by NBC and streamed on Peacock at 10:30 a.m. PDT. All of the Olympians will be in boats for their grand entry instead of making the usual trek through a stadium.
Photo via Robby Collins and the University of Tennessee shows his big smile as he embraces UT Assistant Coach Rich Murphy when the UT women’s swim team won the SEC Championship in 2022.
