Swimming Thoughts

This is a long one... just some thoughts

Typically the most competitive years of a swimmers life are between the ages of 16 to 23 (High School and College). This age bracket represents a period where the swimmer has the most coaching and training time available to them at the lowest cost (or free). Because of this, swimmers perform their best between these years, usually peaking in their early 20's because they've received the most training at this time, and their bodies have matured enough to build muscle. They've also learned enough about their training requirements to perform well on a regular basis. Unfortunately most swimmers retire from swimming immediately following college swimming and either don't return, or take a few years off and enter some masters competitions. I would compare this to quitting a game right after you figure out how to play it.

In the world of swimming, I feel as though it's almost looked down upon to continue to swim past your college years. As if a swimmer is expected to be "burned out" and have put enough of their lives toward competitive swimming to give it up forever. In many cases this is true. If a swimmer has been competitively swimming since age 8 till 23, then 15 years seems like a long time. They start wondering why they swam in the first place... was it fun when I was a kid? What am I getting out of it now? The answer is usually that they wanted to see if they could get through college swimming, or perhaps their swimming paid for a bachelors degree. It's certainly not a bad reason to workout twice a day. But after college is over, why continue? Is there even an interest? After college, it's time to get a "real job" and start making money, settling down, get married and have 2.3 kids. Why even think about swimming ever again?

Stories like that of Dara Torres, the 41 year old, 4 time Olympic Swimmer, along with the great sprinters like Gary Hall Jr. at age 33 and this most recent article I came across about Mark Warkentin, the 28 year old swimmer that just qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games makes me believe that a swimmer is certainly not as fast as they'll ever be at age 23. It gives me strength to know that I have a long time left to swim.

I can only partially relate to the typical post college swimmer. I took a year and a half off because I wanted to get some things accomplished. I had businesses to start, projects to complete, things to learn. It didn't take too long to realize that I wasn't done swimming. I swam a masters meet in April 2005 and realized I still had some speed. I remember it almost being confusing for myself and everybody watching that I swam the times I did... everybody, perhaps even myself expected something mediocre. It sparked my interest in competitive swimming once again. I realized I had fallen into the typical post college swimmer mind set that a swimmers life consisted of: age group, High School, College and that's it.

In the years following, I really enjoyed the masters competitions, I began swimming in every meet possible. It wasn't until January 2006 that I decided to make a run for the 2008 Olympic Trials. I was sitting at Canham Natatorium during Eric Namsnik's memorial service (a U of M swimmer who died in a car accident) listening to Jon Urbanchek speak about Eric. He said many wonderful things about Eric, I learned a lot about this swimmer whom I never had a chance to meet, but one quote stood out in my mind. I wrote it down immediately. He said "A dream is a dream until you do something about it"

I immediately tuned out everything else in the building and considered what my dream was... it took about 5 seconds. My dream was to swim against the best of the best in swimming just once. It was a realistic dream, it's a dream I knew was within my reach with a year and a half before the trials. I kept my dream a secret from everybody except my close friends and family. I didn't need anybody telling me I couldn't do it, I knew what I was capable of. I worked hard balancing work, life and swim and accomplished my dream in April 2008 at the Ohio State Grand Prix. I'm excited to think of what my next goal will be.

I don't care how I do at the Olympic Trials, I will do my absolute best. I've accomplished my life dream at age 27. If I died today I would feel nothing but pride. In June, I will compete at what will most likely be the fastest swim meet in the history of competitive swimming. I will feel incredible to be a part of it.