When You Think Swimming is Thieving Years Away

Jul 29, 2012; London, United Kingdom; Charlotte Bonnet (FRA) prepares to dive off the starting blocks in a warm up session during the London 2012 Olympic Games at Aquatics Centre. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Photo Courtesy: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

By Siobhan Dale, Swimming World College Intern

In swimming time is almost always strange. You trade years for seconds, and seconds for a lifetime. For that reason swimming is not the easiest sport. But in the last minute of a particularly challenging set it’s the remainder of the flexibility of time that pushes you through. One more minute for the rest of your life. Push through for one more minute and achieve what you feel you’ve been dreaming of for a lifetime. Or in my case 11 years exactly.

When I was seven my mom saw an ad in the newspaper for a swim club. Thus, I dove (not so gracefully I’ll admit) into competitive swimming.

When I was nine, I splashed around in the pool with my friends during the time we were supposed to be doing drills. And when the rare occasion occurred that we would actually conjure up enough self discipline to swim a lap, I whirled my arms and legs into motion; it looked a lot like drowning.

When I was 11, I liked to swim laps because unlike at age nine, this time when I pushed off underwater I felt in control.

At 12, I won my first big championship. I had found control and topped it off with a win– swimming meant being good at something.

At 15, I resolved to trade all those years for my dream time of 22 seconds in the 50 free.

At 17, I stood in a parking lot on the way home from States and cried because no such trade occurred. Instead, it was theft. I had given something and had not been repaid with what I had been promised.

Four months after States, I stood in the most unlikely of places and found out the most unexpected of things. I was wrong.

In sports we often think that the idea of sacrifice is meant only in correlation with the product of success. Within our knowledge is the idea that all gold comes with a price, and an acceptance of the fact that that price is years. However, if we take the chance to remove ourselves from the sport in which we are so invested we often come to find that it is not the sport which defines us, but it is ourselves who have defined the sport as the primary identifying factor in our lives.

Gold comes with a price, but that price isn’t years. It’s the cost of not understanding the true trade we are making.

In the end I hadn’t traded years for 22 seconds. I traded it for an opportunity. The chance to stand next to my sister when we won a conference title. Beyond that the chance to get to swim next to her at States and Opens. Swimming is such an individualized sport that the majority of the time those swimming the race with you are the ones trying to take it from you. I’m one of the rare people who get to say that I had someone who believed in me with me until the end.

I made the trade for pasta parties and long stories during practice. For the privilege of meeting girls on the first day of my freshman year who would be some of my best friends on the last day of my senior year. I traded sleep for the chance to spend each morning with my dad on the pool deck doing drill after drill after drill. And then to spend the morning of States hugging him and having him tell me that whether or not I was wearing a gold, silver, or bronze medal, or even no medal at the all, he’d be equally as proud of me.

On my last day of high school swimming my mom came to pick me up from practice and when I got out of the pool I was shocked to find that she was crying. She told me that she wanted to come for the last half hour of my last practice, because she had been there on my very first day of practice freshman year.

This sport didn’t just give me so much, it gave so much to my entire family.

Now that I know the true trade I made, I’m ready to trade even more. If high school swimming gave me this much, I can only imagine what swimming is going to mean to me in the future. I will forever be thankful for the people who got me this far. They have taught me what it means to be supportive, caring, and dedicated. With those traits and this message I know that whatever ends up happening in my college swimming career, my times won’t define the experiences I have. I wouldn’t trade any of the memories I collected as a high school swimmer for the world.

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Nekdoodle

8 years ago

Cool article!

Donna Knight Nelson

8 years ago

What a great article !!!

Sirkku Henkari Tampio

8 years ago

I don’t compete against others but against myself, against my own previous times. Therefore I always win. Even if I lose I win. Very motivating.

William Danielson

8 years ago

Properly understood a sacrifice is actually trading or giving up something you truly value more for something that you value less. Thus, to realize the myriad of life serving values to be had through pursuing ones goals through swimming would only be a sacrifice if you actually valued not being fit, not being dedicated and disciplined in chasing goals, not valuing the commaraderie of others for whom you create indelible bonds of friendship-and more-less than being unfit, not pursuing goals and dreams; basically being a bystander who watches and simply hopes for good things to happen to them. Commitment to a sport you love, regardless the time on the clock or the score at the end is truly a friend with benefits. Benefits you receive that in many ways have less to do with your swim time and more to do with all the things you do along the way in pursuing those best times.

William Danielson

8 years ago

Reply to William Danielson

**Edited my comment, sorry – below is how it should read (ughh, handhelds..)!**

Properly understood a sacrifice is actually trading or giving up something you truly value more for something that you actually value less. Thus, to realize the myriad of life serving values to be had through pursuing ones goals through swimming would only be a sacrifice if you actually valued being fit, being dedicated and disciplined in chasing goals, valuing the camaraderie of others for whom you create indelible bonds of friendship-and more-less than being unfit, not pursuing goals and dreams. Commitment to a sport you love, regardless the time on the clock or the score at the end is truly a friend with benefits. Benefits you receive that in many ways have less to do with your swim time and more to do with all the things you do along the way in pursuing those best times.

Bil Danielson

8 years ago

Great article!