Tomorrow morning, after watching the Trials on the tele tonight (I'm trying out being British - in my head this whole post is in a terrible British accent) and perhaps getting a shag (had to do it, you know, because of the British thing), I will head to a swim meet.
This is a common Saturday morning event for me. I went to a Saturday morning swim meet, as a swimmer, every Saturday for 6 weeks from age 6-18. I did it as a coach at ages 19, 21 and 25. I am now on my 6th year as a parent. That is 22 of my 45 years. In the next 2 years, I will have spent more than half my summers on this Earth going to summer league swim meets on Saturday mornings.
A few days ago, my father told me a story about attending a summer swim meet to watch my niece and nephew. While there, he started talking with another gentleman who was also there to watch his grandchildren swim. The other gentleman told my father that he was attending his first ever swim meet and asked my father how many swim meets he had been to. My father estimated about 500. Realistically, I have attended probably an average of more than 10 meets each of those 22 summers discussed above. So that is 220 meets. Add in about 10 meets per year for 4 years of high school and 4 years of college, and I am over 300. Add in maybe 7-9 per year as a year round swimmer from age 6-18, and I am well over 400. With the winter meets my boys have swum the last 5 years, and the random meets I have attended, because I am a crazy person who likes to watch swimming in any and all forms, and I am getting pretty close to 500 meets. The two Masters meets I swam in the last 6 months may put me over 500. (Shameless plug that I am actually swimming meets again.) If I am close to 500, my father, who for about 20 years attended two meets every Saturday, and was a swimmer himself, and had 3 boys swim summer, year round and high school, is well past 500 and probably approaching 1,000. That is a lot of bloody swim meets.
Today, I received an email from an old friend about a meet he attended last night in Delaware. I also saw a FaceBook post from an old teammate about his daughter's meet in North Carolina. I have seen other posts about summer meets in Ohio and Southern Virginia. Everywhere you look in the summer, someone is swimming a meet.
Tomorrow we return once again to our Saturday ritual. We wake, we eat breakfast, we swim (or the boys swim and we watch and work the meet - you need to volunteer at a swim meet), we sometimes go to lunch. There are literally thousands of people doing the same thing in Fairfax County Virginia, and probably hundreds of thousands across the country, every Saturday morning in June and/or July. Summer swimming.
What is the point? Well, many of those people you see on NBC this week started out in summer leagues just like the one I swam in, the one my children swim in and the ones my friends children swim in. I swam in the NVSL, which believes itself to be the largest community swim league in the country. Over 100 teams and 15,000 swimmers are in the NVSL. One of those swimmers is Cassidy Bayer, who finished 3rd in the Women's 200 butterfly last night. NVSL alums include gold medal winner Edwin Moses and silver medal winner Marcus Rogan. I know for a fact that I am missing other Olympians from the NVSL.
My Boys swim in the CSL. A couple nights ago, John Shebat finished 6th in the Men's 100 Back. Last summer, I watched John Shebat win 3 events at the CSL All Star Meet.
A couple summers ago, Katie Ledecky, fresh off breaking multiple world records, returned to her old summer league pool, in Maryland, to swim one more meet. Despite being the dominant female swimmer in the world, she wanted that summer league experience, just one more time. She didn't go to break records or crush other swimmers (even though she did just that.) She went because summer league swimming is fun. I tell people who are interested in ramping up their swimming experience to keep in mind that year round swimming is work. It is early mornings, long practices, longer meets, exhaustion and then all of those over again. It can be fun, and great and lasting friendships are made, but it is not summer swimming. There is something magical about summer swimming that no other swimming experience can match. High school comes closest, but also, not the same. Summer swimming is what made most of the great swimmers fall in love with the sport. Without this gateway, we wouldn't be the dominant swimming nation we are.
So wake up with pride on Saturday morning, knowing that, in some small way, you are contributing to the continued future dominance of US Swimming. I'll do it tomorrow, and next Saturday, and the next Saturday...
A few Random Thoughts:
1. Seems I jumped the gun with that whole Poland thing. I should stick with swimming.
2. Rowdy Gaines Complaint of the Day - Rowdy, I appreciate the shout out to my old swimming coach last night, but his name is JEFF King, not Jack King. I realize he doesn't have the coaching record of Bob Bowman, but he is Cassidy Bayer's coach. He also coached the butterfly leg of the 1996 gold medal winning 400 Medley Relay and the 2004 silver medalist in the 100 and 200 Backstroke. Let's try to get this right.
3. Alas, Jeff King's most recent Olympic hopeful fell short, finishing third in the Women's 200 Fly. She went for it, though and gave us all a little hope through 150 meters that, at 16 years old, she could pull it off.
4. The NVSL has several current and former swimmers at Trials this year. Tonight, Andrew Seliskar, former NVSL swimmer, has a chance to make the Olympics in the Men's 200 IM.
5. Josh Prenot's last 50 in the 200 breast was a sight to see. And I hate breaststroke.
6. It is a lot of fun to watch 34 year old Anthony Ervin fly through the water with that sleeve of tattoos. He hung on to make the 400 Free Relay last night and has another chance in the 50 (semis tonight.) Another old guy trying to hold off Father Time and youth (although Caeleb Dressel did his part for youth.)
7. I love watching swimmers who have great under water kicks. Natalie Coughlin didn't qualify for the finals in the Women's 100 Free, but watching her go 14 meters under water and pop up in the lead is just fun.
8. Congratulations to the qualifiers from yesterday - Prenot, Cordes, Adams, Flickinger, Adrian Dressel.
What to Watch For:
1. Anthony Ervin. I was not married when he tied for gold in the 50 Free in Sydney. Yes Sydney. And he has a chance to get back in the 50 free.
2. Ryan Murphy - the next great US Backstroker. I love great US Backstrokers. The shot of Aaron Piersol and Lenny Krayzelburg sitting together last night was a backstrokers wet dream.
3. Lochte - Phelps. 1-2 in the 200 IM. Is this the showdown NBC is begging for? Or will someone new sneak in to ruin the last US race between these two long time rivals? And can Lochte prove me wrong and make it in an individual event? He looks pretty good so far.
4. Lilly King is back in the 200 Breast. Again, I am not a breaststroke fan, but she is fun to watch.
5. Big Meet for the Earle boys tomorrow. Middle has 2 close races. Eldest should win 3 easily. Youngest in a weekly battle for top 6 year old.
Predictions Wrap Up:
1. Men's 200 Breast - Cordes, Prenot - Correct two, WRONG order!
2. Women's 200 Fly - Adams, Bayer. (Yes, I am being a homer.) - Correct and WRONG! But I give myself a pass for picking the local girl coached by my old coach and going to my old high school. She was 3rd.
3. Men's 100 Free - Adrian, Dressel - Nailed it.
4. 8 x 100 backstroke for me tonight will hurt. And I will mutter "Damn you, Rich Williams" at least once. - Yes and NO! Hurt a ton, but I crushed it, and focused my energy on working hard, not complaining about my awesome coach.
Predictions:
1. Women's 200 Breast - King, Lawrence
2. Men's 200 Back - Murphy, Pebley
3. Men's 200 IM - Phelps, Lochte
4. Women's 100 Free - Manuel, Weir
5. Middle wins 3 events tomorrow. Eldest will, too, but that is kind of like predicting Ledecky to win the 800 free tomorrow night (which I will do.)
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