Never Stop Improving - How the Summer Olympics Turned Me into a Swimmer

As an American kid, there was always one thing that I was constantly looking forward to – the Olympics. My love of the Olympic Games started out with a fascination with figure skating. I’d float (read: fall) around in my childhood living room pretending that I was Michelle Quan or Oksana Bauil. It was so fun and inspiring watching those young women, who didn’t seem much older than me, striving for their dreams and performing to their own highest possible level. 

As I grew up, my Olympic Games fascination expanded to include the summer games. I would watch the 200 meter sprints and run outside and race with other kids in the neighborhood to see which of us was headed to the next Summer Olympics. As a girl, it was great to be able to see women who were competing at high levels in everything from pole vaulting to archery to synchronized swimming. 

The swimming competitions were always most fascinating, mostly because I didn’t know how to swim (It’s not the only childhood milestones that eluded me, I don’t know how to ride a bike either, but don’t tell anyone). Though I was a highly competitive kid, who participated in a variety of sports, not knowing how to swim was never a particular issue. Neither my elementary, middle, nor high school had a pool, so I wasn’t missing out on any swimming sports. It wasn’t until I was given the opportunity to go on an all-expense paid trip to an academic conference in Puerto Rico during my Junior year in college that my lack of swimming ability became…problematic. 

Although I was a little embarrassed that I was unable to swim, I wasn’t driven to make any change in that status until a particularly insane swimmer was introduced to me through the 2000 Summer Olympics. Watching Michael Phelps swim like a human machine flipped a switch in me that spurred me to action. It wasn’t until the Olympic trials for the Beijing Olympics that my conviction to learn to swim really kicked in. At the time, I was in graduate school and I simply bit the bullet and signed up for individual lessons. When my teacher introduced herself, she announced that she had just completed the Olympic trials herself. She hadn’t made the team, but I was so excited that I was being taught to swim by someone who was nearly a professional in the sport! Turned out that she wasn’t just an Olympic caliber swimmer, she was also a fantastic teacher. During that spring semester, I learned the breast-stroke, the butterfly stroke and the basic freestyle. I learned to breath – which is honestly the absolute hardest part of swimming. And I gained the confidence to know that I wasn’t going to drown – wait, that’s the hardest part. 

The process was long and difficult, but over the course of a few months, I learned to get past my fears and swim. By the time Phelps set his All-Time Record at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, I was swimming like a dolphin (or at least like a guppy). And feeling that old Olympic competitive edge that I’d had as a child.

It is actually still sort of amazing to me that I was able to hold on to my childhood fascination with the Olympic Games and was even able to translate that fascination into action – making the transition to swimmer in my late twenties. My determination to learn how to swim as an adult sparked a similar drive in other family members. A few years after I learned to swim, my mother took up swimming lessons and when she adopted my little sister, it was predetermined that she’d learn to swim as early as possible. 

She’s eight years old now and a decent little swimmer. I’m looking forward to camping out with her during the Rio Olympics to watch Michael Phelps, in what might be his final competitive races. She and I be cheering him on and hopefully I’ll be passing my love of the games and passion for competition to another generation.

*Written by Lindsay S., a proud writer, swimmer, and Redwood resident.