NORTHBOROUGH – Bodë Marston, 11, traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, for his first Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Junior Olympic Games with no great expectations. The Northborough swimmer had never practiced in a 50-meter, Olympic-sized pool before.
But when it came time for the competition, his lack of experience hardly mattered. Competing against some of the best swimmers in the nation in his age group, Marston accumulated medal after medal. With the amount of hardware he had collected by meet’s end, he nearly had to check another bag on his flight home to Massachusetts.
Marston does not come from a family of swimmers. Growing up, he tried all the “usual” sports – soccer and football, for instance– but didn’t love contact sports. A family-friend encouraged him to get involved in swimming, and he quickly joined the program at Longfellow Health Club in Natick. Once he entered the pool, he was dominant…