Swimming in the Rain

One of my favorite memories is from a time when our kids were still very young. We were fairly new to the sport and it was championship day for our summer league. Meets for that league are always outside. Teams are large, pools are small, & organization is sketchy. Championship meets there lasted for mind-numbing hours. That aside, champs are always a festival atmosphere with every square inch of ground covered in blankets and coolers and happy excited kids. Our daughter had brought a little tent to play in with her friends between events. She had received it a couple days before for her birthday, so was very excited to use it. This was a blistering hot day however. The kids soon discovered that it to be much hotter in tent than out, so it sat sadly unused throughout the long day.

Late in the afternoon with only the final relays left to swim a summer storm hit. The meet was delayed while everyone rushed for cover. Every friend my daughter had crowded into that tent with her, like clowns in a tiny car. She even relented when her little brother cried to join them. She had all the girls make room for him to come in too. As soon as they zipped up the door, a boom of thunder sounded and he came flying back out in fear, preferring to wait out the storm with me with 50 other people under our team’s tarp.

The thunder & lightning passed quickly, but the cold, driving rain would not relent. On another day they might have called the meet, but this was the first time in many years that three separate teams were neck and neck in the scoring. Every point mattered, & the outcome of the relays would determine the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place teams. Our team was one of those, maybe for the first time in the history of the league. It was decided to resume swimming in spite of the rain.

I was working in the bull pen that year. The chaos of trying to reconvene all the relay teams amongst a sea of golf umbrellas was a herculean task. The rain was so loud you couldn’t hear anything anyone said, and the very little kids were cold and frightened. So many people had given up and gone home that entire heats were scratched. Our little boys were one of the first races to get back into swing. When my young boy stood on the block I could hardly see him through the rain from where I watched in the bull pen. I knew he was still scared. He swam his lap so fast I wondered if I were mistaken as to which swimmer he was. He told me later that he was in a hurry to get to the other end so he could get out and take shelter again. His whole team must have felt the same way because the coaches and parents were stunned that our boys won that heat. When those kids realized what they had done the rain was forgotten and they stayed out in the rain dancing & whooping around to celebrate. Then they decided to stay by the side of the pool to cheer for the other relays from our team.

I turned back to the bull pen & the daunting task of sorting and finding missing kids to fill relays again. Some kids were huddled in cars out in the parking lot, other had gone home. Other were there but refused to swim. Team after team had to be scratched due to so many missing swimmers. When it was time to sort my daughter’s event, her entire relay team showed up together, all on their own. They were, excited and ready to swim. Though they were also young, they had stayed together in that tent and paid attention to the meet. They had taken turns running outside to check if it was time yet for them to come out & swim. In fact, I think she may have had our A, B, and C relay teams all in that little 4 person tent because they all reported 100% and on time. I think I was even prouder of that than the boy overcoming his fear to swim so fast.

The girls swam extremely well too. Event after event I saw the relays from our team showing up to swim, with all members present, happy and ready to compete, while other teams could not even find 4 kids in an age group to fill even one relay. That was the first time I realized what incredible leadership and enthusiasm our young coaches inspired. The oldest of our coaches couldn’t have been more than 20 years old that year and, yet here they were commanding a team of 150 kids in a massive downpour and it finished without a hitch for us.

When they played “We Are the Champions” at our banquet the next day my heart burst with joy & my eyes watered for such a well deserved victory. Those young coaches told us in no uncertain terms, that we won that meet with heart & perseverance as much as skill. They explained that the scores were so close that every single swim had mattered. They told us that this was what teamwork was all about. It could not have been done without the kids who comforted frightened teammates and talked them in to staying. It would not have happened without people offering to share their shelter.  It couldn’t have happened without all the parents that were willing to stay and wait out the storm, and the ones who worked to get the meet running again during the chaos of the roaring rain. And most important of all, we won that meet because our athletes were the ones who stayed and swam, even if they didn’t really want to, because they knew their team was counting on them & they did not want leave their friends on their relay short-handed.

My little kids learned a lot that day, and my attitude about swimming changed forever.