Commentary
Dear swimmers and coaches from Iowa, Dartmouth, East Carolina, Boise State and Connecticut:
Dear swimmers and coaches from Division II and Division III programs that have been eliminated:
Dear swimmers and coaches from programs that have been cut in previous years:
Dear swimmers and coaches who are looking over their shoulders, wondering if they are next:
Dear swimmers and coaches who have been displaced from your pools:
There is no doubt that you deserve much better than what you have experienced over the past several months, weeks and days. While athletes from all sports have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, I am talking to and about you, and an argument can be made that the wonderful sport of swimming has been battered more than others since March.
For one, swimmers from five universities have been told they have nowhere to practice their craft, and their contributions to their athletic department are – let’s face it – unappreciated. School officials have used budget woes as a shield, but a simple look at the expenses of swimming at the university level reveals that cutting a program is a ripple and nothing more. The sport has been used, as have its coaches and athletes.
These recent cuts have probably opened wounds for swimmers who have experienced program eliminations from the past. Simply seeing another program suffer the axe will conjure up dark memories of the day your program was terminated. You might or might not remember the exact words, but I bet you remember where you were when the news was relayed. And at least for a split second, the present is forcing a distasteful reliving of the past.
Meanwhile, what happened at Iowa last week, and at other schools over several months, has surely generated doubt. Are we next? If I commit to that school, will it have a program for the next four years? Why are we not supported? After all, our team has a first-rate GPA and has brought extreme pride to the school and its alumni. They are all valid questions.
Then there are the athletes who can’t get adequate pool time or have been told their YMCA or club program has been dumped. These past few months have been brutal to you, too. COVID-19 has forced some of you to look for new teams to represent. It has left Olympic champions, such as Matt Grevers, bouncing from pool to pool looking for a proper training setting. It has left young kids just entering the sport out of the water, with some of those newbies never to return since they can get some outdoor court time and participate in another sport. What if that kid had serious potential and could have represented Team USA on the international stage one day? What if that kid’s intro to swimming was enough to make him/her water safe and, as a result, was a reason disaster was averted one day down the road?
Quickly, I will tell you about my background in swimming. I don’t have one from a competitive standpoint. I was into other sports. But when I was breaking into the journalism world, I was assigned to cover a high school meet and became hooked. It helped that a kid named Brendan Hansen was swimming and gave me many reasons to learn. Twenty years later, I am still hooked.
Maybe I have become biased, but in two decades covering swimming, I have come to realize some things. I know swimming boasts a higher percentage of superb students than other sports. I believe its participants are among the most dedicated. Heck, you can’t fake it in swimming. I see bonds between teammates that rival any other sport. Simply, I have come to appreciate this sport and its competitors to the max and am thankful to have been around it for as long as I have.
It’s been a rough stretch with program cuts and the impact of COVID-19 on training opportunities. Swimmers have every right to feel they have been beaten down. And while my words will not change what has happened, I wanted to at least say thank you for allowing me to be part of your sport in a small way, and for demonstrating so frequently what is right about athletics. You work tirelessly. You inspire. You carry yourselves with grace.
There are people who appreciate you deeply.
All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine, the International Swimming Hall of Fame, nor its staff.
Great stuff John Lohn!
Thank you for your insight from the “outside”.