Big Swim: Rec League

You should really read the previous posts about Gwinnett County Swim League and the county meet before you read this one.

This is a story about John when he was thirteen or fourteen years old at the Championship Meet for the Gwinnett County Swim League. John had been swimming with the Dynamo Swim Club for a couple years by this time, so he was an experienced and capable swimmer. John told us part of this story after the fact and part of this is what I observed, but I’ve never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

The county championship meet is a mind-numbing experience. For each age group and gender there is a 50-yard race for backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle, plus a 100-yard freestyle, a 100-yard individual medley, a medley relay, and a freestyle relay. Two genders, times a bunch of age groups, times a bunch of events, times 50 swimmers per event, equals a HUGE number of swim heats diving into the pool; each one to be announced, started, swum, timed, recorded, and get their butts out of the pool for the next heat to swim.

Each successive heat is generally faster than the previous heat. Parents make sure to catch their own kid’s swim, and fans of the sport will pay attention to the final and fastest heat to see if there is a talented swimmer worthy of notice. Generally the noise level around the pool is steady. On the rare occasion when a swimmer in the final heat does something spectacular, the audience noise grows noticeably and erupts at the finish.

John was swimming the anchor (final) leg of his team’s 4x50-yard freestyle relay. It is a down and back swim. This was the final heat, the fastest seeded heat, the third swimmer was already in the water, and John’s team was in second place by two body lengths. By this I mean there was a full five feet of empty water between the head of John’s teammate and the toes of the lead swimmer coming into the finish. This is generally regarded as an insurmountable lead. I was there to see John and the anchor swimmer for the leading team step up on the blocks and prepare to take off.

Swimming competition was generally a friendly event, and John had been taught to be courteous, so he turned to the other swimmer up on the blocks and genially said “Good luck”. The other kid scowled at John and said, “You’re going down!” Talking trash at swim meets is only done in jest between good friends, so this did not sit well with John. The other kid foolishly gave John some extra motivation. John was ticked.

As I said, the leading team had a two body length lead, and the other kid had confidence in that lead, so the anchor swimmer didn’t risk anything on his takeoff. He was very safe and probably wasted some time. On the other hand John had a lot of distance to make up in only 50 yards, so he took a chance on a perfect takeoff with his toe leaving the blocks just as the third swimmer touched the wall.

John put a lot into his takeoff, had a good entry, held a really tight streamline for a long ways underwater, and came up at the other kid’s feet. Making up that kind of distance so quickly is really rare. He’d made up an entire body-length and you could hear the crowd react. The reaction of the spectators who were watching caused all the others who had their heads buried in books or engaged in conversation to look up and take note.

John caught up some more on the swim to the far wall, but really attacked the turn, and held another long tight streamline underwater. It’s hard to know where the swimmers are in relation to each other when they are under water during the turn. It isn’t until they both come up after the turn that you know what has happened during the turn.

The other kid came up first and immediately started thrashing down the pool, but there was no sign of John. He was under for what felt like an eternity to me, and I was wondering if he had totally botched the turn. He finally popped up almost mid-pool and was ahead of the other kid. This was an exceptional come-from-behind performance and the crowd knew it; would it be too cliché to say that “the crowd went nuts”? That’s what happened. John took the few remaining strokes and put some more distance on the other kid and won the race, big.

The crowd made a nice buzzing noise after the race as they talked about what had just happened. It was a really neat moment. Of course I was proud of him. I still am.

Don’t tick John off.