Swimming Ain't for Sissies

Has anyone else been watching the Olympic Swimming Trials?  Unbelievable.  It's almost too stressful to watch - I want all of the superstars to win, but I also want all of the newbies to win too!  I wish they could take more than the top two swimmers in each event....seems like a really hard thing to go through to get close enough only to lose by .001 of a second! 

Swimming was a big part of my life growing up.  I swam for years - I wasn't a fast swimmer by any stretch of the imagination, but I sure had 'pretty strokes'!  Just what a girl wants to hear!  I loved being on a swim team and the camaraderie that went with it.

I was only a 'summer swimmer' though....that meant I wasn't a really serious, get up at 5AM to go to practice type of swimmer.  My brother was though...I think once I was old enough to fill out the top of my bathing suit, it wasn't fun for me anymore.

My younger brother T though, he was a dedicated swimming geek.  I mean geek in the nicest way possible - after all, his teammates were all super fit, cut guys in speedos...nothing wrong with that when I was in high school! 

He actually swam for the North Baltimore Aquatic Club or NBAC - that's the team that Michael Phelps swims for/owns.  They are a serious group of swimming folks - let me tell you... he swam before school, after school and in every spare moment swimming was discussed.

It was really fun to be able to cheer my brother on during his races and I really loved seeing his name up on the records boards....so proud of my 'little' brother!  I wouldn't be surprised to see his name still holding a few records at his alma mater!

Because of growing up in a swimming household, I get a true sense of what the swimmers and their families are going through right now.  In fact, I find myself holding my breath when they race and pushing my feet against an imaginary wall when they do their flip turns to help them get ahead!   I guess once you love it, you never quite forget it.

For now though, I'll watch the trials and the Olympics and cheer on the Lochtes and the Phelps' and the underdogs from Swim MAC here in Charlotte and hope that many dreams will be met throughout these Olympics....and remember the sacrifices the families have made to get their kids to this point - and lets not forget about the shaving down that has to happen for all - ouch.  And those bathing caps...super ouch....

Swimming ain't for sissies Ya'll!  Happy Friday!