What is your definition of success? A man I know says it means it is time to find a new challenge for yourself. No one understands that better than a swimmer. No matter what time standard you achieve, there is always another level of competition to strive for with a new set of qualifying times. In my mind, that is what makes the sport of swimming so great and so addictive.
The sound of cheers erupting from the stands and on deck when a kid makes a difficult cut will make my eyes water & give me goose bumps every time. It is a feeling people outside the sport may never understand. Only the parents of the athlete may know the true story about what that kid has gone through before they met that goal. When the cheers are loudest, I know the victory was not an easy one.
As an 8 & under, my son felt like a bit of a star on his YMCA winter team. He had qualified for zones with his relay, and was anticipating earning several individual cuts the next year when he would be in the older half of his age group. The next fall however, he wanted to switch to a USA team. He knew someone who was excelling there, and he thought the tougher competition would make him faster.
It was a rocky transition, new friends, new rules, new coaches, harder qualifying times…He got slower before he got faster while they taught him better technique. To top it all off, he was once again in the younger half of his age group, due to a different way that leagues determines the groupings. It was clear to me that it would be another year before he would be qualifying for states (USA’s version of the Y’s Zone meet). I worried what would happen when his Y friend all headed to zones and he had no to elite meet to attend.
He was determined he would get a cut though, and he inched closer and closer as the winter wore on. However at regional champs, he came up just short, event after event. This was his first experience with a three day meet, as well as with a prelims / finals meet. He swam morning and night every day, so by Sunday he was incredibly exhausted. Still his determination remained strong, and he made it to finals in one of the hardest events, 100yd fly. He told us during break between sessions that was the one he would get his cut in. As unlikely as it seemed at the beginning of the weekend, we were now beginning to believe him. Consequently the whole family went to finals to watch.
He was the 6th seed in the top heat. At the 50yd turn he was in the lead and several seconds ahead of his morning time. I couldn’t believe my eyes! He was usually a kid who did best in the 2nd half of a race, so this was incredible!
After that turn though, something happened and every swimmer passed him by. At 75 yards he got out! It still breaks my heart to remember that all these years later. As he came over to the bleachers, fighting tears, he explained,” My goggles came down but I kept swimming. They were pushing water up my nose and making me drown. I would have kept going anyway but I saw the official’s hand go up and I knew I was DQ’d.”
He was devastated and so very tired. His season was over and he told me he was too humiliated to return to practice. He said he never wanted to swim again. After a night’s sleep we convinced him he should at least go to one more practice to congratulate the kids who did get their cuts and collect his ribbons. Fate smiled on us that day, when at practice he learned that he had swam so well over the weekend they wanted him to be on one of the state relay teams. I am sure that helped him recovered his pride and determination and stick with the sport.
The next fall he made his 1st state cut at the very 1st meet of the season. I knew because I used to time all his splits on my stopwatch in the bleachers. His coach did the same thing and she knew it too. He missed the touchpad though, and all three of his human timers were distracted by something and did not stop their watch. Officially all they could give him was a time 1/100th faster than the kid who touched after him. That was not a qualifying time. Oh was he was mad (me too)! One of the coaches just calmly told him to swim so fast next time that he smashed the standard so there could be no doubt.
One week later that is exactly what he did. When he looked up at the clock and pumped his fist all his friends on deck roared. For me, it was a feeling like no other. That was a very long and hard-fought victory for such a young kid.
That is what I remember every time I hear someone in the stands cheering for a kid who got a cut.
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