I wrote, posted, and then pulled this piece from the blog in July of 2010. I wasn’t as enthused about the posting as I usually am with the other postings. The blog post was an attempt to express my admiration for the sport of swimming, distance swimmers in particular, and the prevalence of sportsmanship within the sport. Having said that up front, what’s left to say? I’ve worked on it some more and hope that it is now worthy of your time.
Jean and I followed Ann and John to swim meets for 15 years. We’ve been to swim meets at all levels of competition, including the American Olympic Trials, and I have to say that I am impressed with the sport of swimming. I’ve found it to be a healthy and wholesome sport you’d be willing to take kids of any age to watch. Swim meets generally lack the aggressive mean-spirited attitudes sometimes found in football, basketball, and baseball. (There are those BALL sports again!) There are a few jerks, but long-time swimmers generally learn the proper attitude. Most swimmers are respectful to each other, genuinely wish each other well before a race, and congratulate each other afterwards. Swimmers are a wonderfully supportive community. I think this is especially true in the distance events.
Before a race the distance guys will be bouncing and stretching gently behind the blocks trying to stay loose before the race begins. They don’t engage in the pre-combat death stare that sprinters use. Instead the guys will smile at each other, or say something funny to the guy in the next lane who also laughs, or walk over to the next lane to shake the guy’s hand and wish him well. It’s the same camaraderie I see in the distance races at track meets and at road races.
When the race is over the distance swimmers laboriously climb out of the pool, and they seek each other out before doing their warm-down swims. They shake hands as they gather in twos and threes and describe their races to each other. They re-live what they did at each stage of the race, how they were feeling, and compliment the other guy’s effort. If they were dying late in the race, they say so, and they all have a good laugh about it. There are no hard feelings. There is no animosity. There is only mutual respect and admiration. They know all too well the pain and hours of practice that created a quality time.
I admire parents who attend swimming events....long and hot in there. Just today I read an article on how professional sports like auto racing are acceptably violent by hurting other drivers including one's own team mate, just to win. I noticed more base ball players being hit by pitches etc. Not good.
ReplyDeleteHow about something on Aunt Glad for your 8th week?