Why Joey Puglessi Wants His Records To Fall

joey-puglessi-record
Photo Courtesy: Joey Puglessi

By Katlynn Emaus, Swimming World College Intern

It hangs looming over the pool, as if challenging the swimmers within it. It encourages and intimidates every athlete that walks through the doors. Every pool has one– the record board. The names of the greats that swam many years ago painted proudly, boldly, upon a wall. It seems almost every pool has their record board set up so swimmers are forced to stare at it during long, tedious kick sets. Forced to see all the names of people who are faster than them. Forced to make a decision; to let some numbers and names make them shake in their fins or see those times as inspiration.

Most swimmers would love nothing more than to kick one name off the board. To have one’s name posted alongside the fastest times a program has ever seen would be honorable for any swimmer.

However, there is one particular swimmer who wants nothing more than to see his name taken off the record board. Confusing, right?

Breaking the Mold

Joey Puglessi has collected numerous records in a variety of events and age groups for the Rapid Area YMCA Swimmers (RAYS), and pushes younger kids to erase his name from the record board.

It was the first session of the first meet of the year– the MC Thanksgiving Classic. All of the distance events were taking place. The 400 IM, 500 free, and for some brave 12 and unders, the 1650 freestyle. Joey swam his 400 IM, and with only a couple of weeks of training under his belt, added a couple of seconds. But he did not let that deteriorate his enthusiasm for watching the 12 and under miles.

There was a swimmer in the heat that had the potential to break Joey’s record. The final heat of the 12 and under mile dove in. Halfway through the race, the coaches and Joey realized that the swimmer was under record pace. Joey cheered, paced, jumped, yelled, and flailed, edging swimmer to kick harder, to give it all he had. The 12-year-old boy hit the wall and Joey’s record went down. Moments after the race Joey held the swimmer in an embrace.

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Photo Courtesy: Joey Puglessi

“I remember having the older kids support me when I was a young swimmer, and it rocked my world,” Joey said. “It made me feel like they cared about my success, and I looked up to them. This prompted me to act the way I did when I watched [the 12-year-old’s] mile.”

Joey’s mentality is that if records are being broken then the sport is getting faster and heading in the right direction. It doesn’t matter if his name is taken down in the process, Joey is just excited to see people swim fast. That is what the sport is about: being excited in other’s success as well as your own. Much too often, athletes can get stuck with the mentality that they are single-handedly the sport of swimming. That is just not true.

Everyone is guilty of it at some point or another, but it is crucial that we circle back to a selfless mentality. If athletes can be excited, not envious, of another’s success there would no longer be any nerves at a meet. Essentially, it would create a snowball effect. One good swim would lead to another, then another and so forth.

“It’s fun to see kids that you swim next to every day have their hard work pay off,” Joey said. “This is especially the case with young swimmers. It’s obvious that, whether or not you like it, the younger swimmers look up to the older ones. To see younger kids that you know you have had an impact on swim fast is just as rewarding as swimming fast yourself.”

Your Swimming Identity

Swimming is a very competitive sport full of very competitive people. Every athlete goes to practice at ludicrous hours of the morning, so when the time comes, they can post a fast time. That can be where things go wrong. A swimmer could drop four seconds in the 50 free and still be upset because they lost to a teammate or missed a cut. They worry about the uncontrollables and allow numbers on a piece of paper to determine their self worth.

It is critical in swimming to be head strong. Swimming is a sport that is just as mental as it is physical. If the pool has slippery blocks or the water makes your tongue feel weird and the swimmers allow those uncontrollables to weigh them down, they are giving up parts of their race before the starter says “take your mark.”

Meets are talked up so that swimmers believe a fiery abyss will open up and swallow them whole if they don’t post a best time. When in reality, meets are simply glorified practices. They give swimmers the opportunity to put their training to the test, to see themselves, as well as teammates, go fast. Because at the end of the day, no one will remember times or places, they will remember the teammates.

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Photo Courtesy: Doug Keller

Teammates are the most important pieces of the team. Seeing teammates succeed after pushing through months of hard training is just as, if not more, satisfying than seeing yourself succeed. That 12-year-old boy will probably forget what he went in that 1650, but he will never forget Joey and his enthusiasm.

The young miler went on to break more team records and qualify for multiple championship meets, and Joey was his number one fan through it all.

“You can focus on yourself all you want, but the easiest way to help everyone swim fast, including yourself, is to support each other,” Joey said. “If you create a supporting environment full of caring teammates, everyone gets faster– together.”

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Swimfreak
Swimfreak
8 years ago

Anyone who doubts the enthusiasm over a personal team record being broken doesn’t know Joey. This guy is extremely fast, but also one of the nicest kids on the pool deck. Great article.

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