At any given moment, swimmers warm up (and cool down).
Swimmers gather themselves in preparation for racing.
Swimmers get up to race.
Races take place.
Teammates (and fans) cheer.
Races are won (and lost).
Races are recapped.
Some people are thrilled, and some are disappointed.
An excellent thing about swimming is that you don't have to win a race to be thrilled. If you achieve a personal best in a race, that can be a huge thrill, even if you come in last. One girl in the meet was over the moon to have broken five minutes in the 500 freestyle for the first time. That is a very good time, and though she did not win the race, her time sent her home a very happy camper.
One of my favorite Pioneer High School swim stories is the night a hard-working senior finally broke ten minutes in the 500. She was a person who was always there for her teammates, and they were there for her that night. She got more cheering, from the team, and from the coaches, than the future Olympian who broke the pool record in the 500 that same night. For the excellent swimmer, it was a nice swim. For the girl who broke ten minutes, it was, perhaps, the capping achievement of four years in the pool (never missing even one practice in those four years!), and the crowd went wild...................
2 comments:
It's a wonderful sport where personal bests can be just as momentous as winning...
Amen. So cool that one girl can be thrilled because she broke 30 seconds in her 50 free, while another is thrilled to have won her heat, and another is thrilled to have won her race (many heats in one race), and another is thrilled to have set a pool record....
We had no experience with high school sports before our daughter started to swim. One hears so many things about nasty jerky high school coaches..... And our daughter never swam competitively before high school.
We had no idea that we were joining such a wonderful, supportive program, nor that it was so successful -- the Pioneer girls have been state champions every year since 1999, and were number one nationally in '02, '04, '05.
Every girl who is willing to do the work (and it's a LOT of work!) is a full-fledged member of the team.
How cool to get to be on the national number one team! :-)
Our whole swim experience feels like winning the lottery without even buying a ticket......
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