Olympic Trials

Sunday was an excellent day, full of inspiration and motivation from watching others participate in my favorite sport. I didn't get in the water at all, myself, but had a great swimming day nonetheless.

Through a series of circumstances I'm not sure I really understand, I was somehow chosen to be the official starter for the CARA swim meet at the Ridge pool. (No, CARA does not stand for "Colorado Association for Rugrat Aquatics".) Since rule enforcement is somewhat, uh, restrained, my duties consisted of nothing more than calling the heats to the blocks, saying "Take your mark", and pressing a button to activate the horn that tells the swimmers when to dive in. Or in some cases, tumble into the water with a proud and enthusiastic bellyflop.

You really need to attend one of these meets! For the most part, the kids are adorable...and the swimming itself is fraught with entertainment value. There are a few kids with obvious natural talent, and a few others with some potential to work hard and achieve success. But most of the kids who discover their aquatic gifts quickly move on to more competitive teams, so most of the swimmers in CARA are solidly in the "developmental" stages. Unique strokes and creative interpretations of regulations abound.

Since this is an introductory league, I was told not to worry about illegal touches, asymmetrical butterfly, one-hand touches, backstrokers who finish on their front, or even false starts. These are all things I gripe about constantly with the adults I coach, but sure, I could let them slide for the wee folk.

One young lady apparently figured out this loophole and decided to take advantage of it. As I was announcing the event -- "Ladies, this is 25 yards freestyle" -- she took off and started swimming. The other girls knew that I hadn't fired the starting horn, but they didn't want to get behind, so they took off, too. A few of them figured out that the race hadn't really begun, and shut it down to return to the wall, but a couple of them went all the way to the other end of the pool, despite all of the frantic urging for them to stop.

Twenty-five yards is a LONG way when you're less than one yard tall — I decided to let them rest a bit before we restarted the event. I called the next heat to the blocks, figuring we'd let the next group go and then come back to pick up the false start heat. Unfortunately, that idea confused the timers and heat arrangers so much that we ended up with a lengthy delay. I think the kids all understood what I was trying to do, but by the time the adults figured it out, the competitors had all rested for plenty of time. After some additional discussion among the volunteers and various tot wranglers, we finally got the original heat back on the blocks and resumed the competition.

I'm sure the time went by more quickly for me than it did for the competitors and their parents. When you're 8 or 9 years old, the waiting between events seems to drag on for eternity...and when you're a parent trying to keep track of multiple children while simultaneously planning what to feed them afterwards, make a grocery list for your subsequent trip to the store, and trying to figure out when you're going to be able to squeeze in the lawn mowing as well -- you just wish the stupid starter would make the meet run faster.

I can't blame 'em. Everybody wants the meet to move quicker. But the process of getting racers into the right lanes, getting the event cards transferred to and from the timers, and just shuffling all the little swimmer bodies along the narrow corridors on the pool deck...well, it takes a lot of time.

Nevertheless, it was a fun morning, and I think the kids enjoyed themselves. At that age, pretty much every race results in a PR (personal record) and is celebrated as a triumph -- regardless how much the spectators wince and cringe at the floptastic dives that look SO painful.

That evening at home, I watched the first few events of the US Olympic Swimming Trials. Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff set world records by stunningly large amounts. But in each of those events, the second place finishers also broke the previous records! These amazing performances set the stage for a very exciting Olympic Games to come, and of course, inspire me to work harder in my own practices. (They also make me intensely jealous of the gifts those athletes have been blessed with. I mean, to me, it looks and feels like I'm swimming exactly the same way they are...but I am SO much slower. Even though I study the sport intensely, train hard, and try to refine my technique at each practice, if I were to race the 400IM against Michael Phelps, he'd have time to exit the pool, take a shower, and order a pizza...all before I even finished. Sigh.

But you know what? One of those little kids I saw earlier in the morning may eventually be the one to break the records that Phelps and Hoff will set this summer. And that thought makes me smile.

Have a great day!