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FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. – Nine Charlotte-based Olympic swimming hopefuls made their way to the Triad over the weekend to help make Forsyth County high school swimmers more competitive in the pool.

The clinic was open to all high schools in the county.

Salem Larowe has been a swimmer for as long as she can remember. But over the weekend, she got some help on her technique from a former Olympian and Olympic hopefuls.

“It's crazy. I never thought they would come to Winston-Salem to show a bunch of high school swimmers their tricks and everything, so I thought that was really cool,” Larowe, a senior at Calvary Baptist Day School, said.

Experienced swimmers say teaching high school students is important, because that's when many of them realize their potential in swimming.

“I was in college when I decided to really put my head down and said, ‘You know, I can be a lot better at this. Let me focus,’” Cullen Jones, an Olympic swimmer, said.

And focusing worked for Jones. He's a 2008 Olympic gold medalist and set the American record in 50-meter freestyle last summer. Now he hopes to pass that passion for the pool onto others.

“It's just getting them fired up about swimming, getting them little lessons, little tidbits, how to make them faster, get them a little faster so that one day they can fill our shoes,” Jones said.

The students spent most of their day on the starting blocks, working on their starts. And that's something experts say can make a big difference on their times.

“You can win or lose a race based on starts and turns. You see the Natalie Coughlins and Michael Phelps of the world do a turn and they pop up 10 meters down the pool or 20 meters down the pool, you know, doing fly kicks and they're teaching them how to get in and off the wall correctly and how to dive in a be fast,” swim coach Chris Bowker said.

And while the students want to learn how to be fast, Larowe says there is something special about learning it from 2012 Olympic hopefuls.

“They're all really, really good. So we are hoping that that will rub off on us and their tricks to getting fast will help us on our times,” Larowe said.

The nine elite swimmers are a part of Swim MAC Carolinas based in Charlotte.