{"id":418710,"date":"2020-02-26T08:01:48","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T15:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=418710"},"modified":"2020-03-17T13:28:17","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T20:28:17","slug":"despite-cancer-diagnosis-gaby-jimenez-plays-key-role-for-aac-champion-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/despite-cancer-diagnosis-gaby-jimenez-plays-key-role-for-aac-champion-houston\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite Cancer Diagnosis, Gaby Jimenez Plays Key Role for AAC Champion Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gaby Jimenez Peon<\/strong> was where she wanted to be in the final weekend of her college career, but it was far from the circumstances she had envisioned.<\/p>\n

Jimenez was on deck with her University of Houston teammates at their home pool, vying for a fourth straight American Athletic Conference title<\/a>. She greeted teammates, dripping wet and beaming, as they exited the pool or headed for the podium. By Saturday night, when she and her nine fellow seniors had completed their clean sweep of conference titles, she massed with her teammates for a group picture, then lined up on the bulkhead for a celebratory dip.<\/p>\n

That part was normal. But it\u2019s been the only thing in Jimenez\u2019s senior season that has been. Instead of competing for the Cougars last weekend, Jimenez\u2019s duties as a senior captain took different forms \u2013 as a motivator, as a cheerleader, and as an occasional lunch-getter.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the new reality the six-time AAC finalist had to come to peace with in 2020. Instead of a capstone campaign, the Mexican international\u2019s career took a detour, via a diagnosis of thyroid cancer in December. And while she\u2019s on the road to recovery since surgery, it brought an abrupt end to her swimming career.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t stop her, however, for participating wholeheartedly in the final conference meet she\u2019d looked forward to for years, even if she wasn\u2019t in the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a rollercoaster,\u201d Jimenez said. \u201cI was so excited to be around the team and being able to help with anything needed, getting coffee, lunch, dinner, just cheering on my team. But I also had the bad moments where I wish I was swimming and scoring points for them. But it was fun. It was fun winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018This is not me\u2019<\/h4>\n

What appeared to be the high point of Jimenez\u2019s career was, in hindsight, really the beginning of the end.<\/p>\n

\"Nov.

Gaby Jimenez swims at the Phill Hansel Invitational last November. Photo Courtesy: Joe Buvid\/For Houston Athletics<\/p><\/div>\n

Jimenez parlayed a tremendous junior season with Houston \u2013 finishing third in the AAC in the 100 breaststroke and 400 individual medley and fourth in the 200 breast \u2013 into her best achievement yet in long course. She redoubled her training after the college season with Houston coach Ryan Wochomurka<\/strong> and qualified to represent Mexico<\/a> at the 2019 World Championships. Though she\u2019d been to the Junior Pan Pacific Championships and the Central American Games, this was an international step up.<\/p>\n

But her swims in Gwangju, South Korea, started to sow concern. She added time in the 100 breast (from a seed of 1:11.04 to 1:11.83 in finishing 38th) and an alarming amount in the 200 breast (from 2:33.02 to 2:37.49 in taking 29th). It was possible, her coaches said, that a grueling 11-month season had caught up to her.<\/p>\n

The prescription was rest, and Jimenez returned to her native Naucalpan for an abbreviated vacation around family. When she returned to Houston in September, all seemed normal, if uneven, at first. Wochomurka, for instance, recalls dual meets where her 100 breaststroke would seem fine, but her times over longer distances would be way out of whack.<\/p>\n

By October, Jimenez got to a point where she couldn\u2019t finish workouts, starting a stretch where she didn\u2019t finish a training session for four months. It started as cramps, in her legs or her arms. When the cramping reached her neck, her concern ratcheted up. She was used to swimming through pain, as so many swimmers are. But this felt like more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first started feeling tired and fatigued and all that, I thought, I\u2019m a swimmer, this is how I\u2019m supposed to feel,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it was not only the pool. I would wake up and get tired.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lack of endurance in training was a warning sign for Wochomurka, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that we\u2019ve known about Gaby since she got here as a freshman is that she\u2019s a worker,\u201d Wochomurka said. \u201cShe takes pride in that and she works hard, and obviously with the events she\u2019s been more inclined to swim for us, those are aerobically challenging races. \u2026 It would be about halfway through practice, and she\u2019d be drowning. She\u2019d have a hard time moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

The symptoms started to spread. Constant fatigue meant Jimenez started going to bed at 7 p.m. She couldn\u2019t make it through classes or study sessions. Her parents worried she might fall asleep while driving. Wochomurka availed the university\u2019s resources, like nutrition help or time management changes to lessen stress, but those didn\u2019t help as they had in the past.<\/p>\n

Even as blood tests kept coming back normal, Jimenez knew something more than just heavy training was to blame.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would wake up and be tired already,\u201d Jimenez said. \u201cI told the coaches, this is not normal. This is not me. \u2026 I was just tired and couldn\u2019t control it, not even with coffee or anything. It was just my body shutting down. That\u2019s when I knew it wasn\u2019t the training or swimming or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through it all, Jimenez continued competing. She swam in all of the Cougars\u2019 fall dual meets and was markedly slower at the Rice Invitational in October, but recovered slightly by the dual meets in the second half of the season. As much as being around teammates offered support and normalcy, the results disheartened her further, her body unable to achieve what she wanted to give the team as one of its leaders.<\/p>\n

By time the Phill Hansel Invitational<\/a> rolled around in November, Jimenez took a step back. After conferencing with Wochomurka and her parents, she decided to skip the team\u2019s December training trip to Florida. She instead went back to Mexico, ostensibly for Mexican Nationals, but mostly to push through the specialists that had returned clean blood tests, urging for them to keep search.<\/p>\n

After a biopsy in mid-December, she got the news on December 26: Thyroid cancer, which would require surgery and a regimen of hormone pills for her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt answered a lot of questions for us,\u201d Wochomurka said, \u201cbut it wasn\u2019t the answers we wanted to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

A swimming decision<\/h4>\n

For all the terror that the C word carries, Jimenez at least had an explanation. Her intuition told her something was very wrong, and she\u2019d advocated for herself until a culprit was found. She also had a choice: Surgery could be put off until after the conference meet, her doctor told her.<\/p>\n

\"Nov.

Gaby Jimenez. Photo Courtesy: Joe Buvid\/For Houston Athletics<\/p><\/div>\n

Jimenez considered that possibility. For four years at Houston, she\u2019d positioned the AAC Championships as the last meet of her career. Despite the Worlds trip, qualifying for the Olympics was a longshot, and the team\u2019s dedication to winning four straight championships<\/a> had defined her career.<\/p>\n

Initially, Jimenez was tempted. But within a day of putting a name to her all-encompassing malaise, she made a firm decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of what I wanted, and then after a couple hours, I just said, you know what, \u2018I\u2019ve been thinking about it all day, and I don\u2019t think I can swim for two months knowing I have cancer,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cMy body is just not right, so what\u2019s the point of swimming when I\u2019m not even swimming fast or not where I want to be?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jimenez had surgery January 9, but there were complications. Doctors found more malignant tissue than expected, requiring incisions through the shoulder muscle that would require longer rehab and definitely end any chance of her returning this season. Her parents made the call, mid-operation, to make sure doctors removed as much of the tissue as possible. Jimenez also spent a week in the hospital waiting for her calcium levels to stabilize. She remains on hormone pills and daily calcium supplements to replace hormones a healthy thyroid would produce.<\/p>\n

Jimenez retained some outside hope that she might heal quickly enough to take part in AACs. But on Feb. 2, she announced in a Facebook post that she was effectively retiring. It was the first time she\u2019d opened up about her condition to anyone outside her family and her extended Houston family. Despite the finality, that announcement only solidified what she\u2019d felt weeks earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always had this plan of finishing my career at Houston with the conference meet,\u201d she said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t able to swim but I was still part of it. So for me, my career ended when I found out about my cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The return to deck<\/h4>\n

Six weeks on from her surgery, Jimenez is only in the water as part of physical therapy, rehabbing her shoulder. But staying involved with the team was a priority from the outset. She\u2019s got one year of studies left at Houston and hopes to stay involved with the team in some capacity. So was the academic side of it: The extended hospital stay delayed her return to Houston by a week, but the impact on her studies was minimal for the double-major in supply-chain management and marketing who\u2019d twice been an all-AAC academic selection.<\/p>\n

Wochomurka has seen the impact she has on deck. He admired Jimenez from her first days on campus, especially how quickly she adapted to the team-centric aspect of dual meets and conferences that is largely absent for international swimmers. He sees great potential in her as a coach, if she chooses that path, and witnessed how her former teammates respond to her, out of a respect that her commitment has earned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing that she brought to our program over the last three months has just been much better perspective for our student-athletes and myself included, that what an incredible opportunity we have,\u201d Wochomurka said. \u201cThis is such a gift that we get to compete in a collegiate environment at a Division I school. Sometimes, that can get lost in the daily grind of chasing this or chasing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

At AACs, Jimenez\u2019s role involved whatever she could do to help teammates, many of whom had #4gaby inked on their arms and backs. Sometimes it was running to get lunch or snacks. Other times it was offering helpful advice on deck, a high five or a pep talk.<\/p>\n

All of it required Jimenez to put herself second. There were tough moments, when thoughts of what could\u2019ve been encroached upon what was. Wochomurka saw it on Friday, the day of Jimenez\u2019s two signature events, the 400 IM and 100 breast, a daunting double that she had navigated so successfully.<\/p>\n

Cancer had forced her to put herself first, a decision her teammates wholeheartedly supported. So her final weekend as a college swimmer involved her putting others first.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to me the strength she showed just this week,\u201d Wochomurka said. \u201cI know inside must\u2019ve been heart-melting for her. But she came out cheering louder as much as she could, just her presence there made us better, because of who she is and being there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was one time I needed to cry, I went to the bathroom, cried for like three seconds and went back to the pool deck,\u201d she said. \u201cI was like, OK, this is not my time right now. I have to be strong for them. \u2026 I was like, no, just hide the pain. They don\u2019t need to see your pain right now. This is their time to shine. It\u2019s not about you; it about the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the pictures and videos, and from the way that Jimenez describes the weekend, being a spectator didn\u2019t demonstrably diminish what she felt. It was different, for sure. But as Jimenez slides away from first-person and into third-person, her focus at AACs sharpens in focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fun. That\u2019s all I can think of,\u201d she said. \u201cWe won our first title at home my freshman year, so my class always had these goals of getting our four championships, getting four rings. We always said we wanted to finish our business at home. So we were so excited our senior conference was going to be at home, so we wanted this championship so bad, and we all went for it. So we were so excited. We felt like we did everything to get it, and it turned out the way we wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gaby Jimenez Peon was where she wanted to be in the final weekend of her college career, but it was far from the circumstances she had envisioned. Jimenez was on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8367,"featured_media":418711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,122077,6,10],"tags":[66010,121631,121630],"class_list":["post-418710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-americas","category-college","category-world","tag-american-athletic-conference-swimming","tag-gaby-jimenez","tag-houston-womens-swimming-and-diving"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nDespite Cancer Diagnosis, Gaby Jimenez Helps Houston to AAC Title<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Instead of a capstone campaign, Gaby Jimenez's career took a detour, via a diagnosis of thyroid cancer. 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