4 Reasons Why Swim Friends Are the Best of the Best

swimming-best-friends
Photo Courtesy: Janet Johnson

4 Reasons Why Swim Friends Are the Best of the Best

By Nicole E. Johnson

Having a best friend is one of the greatest feelings in the world. They’re someone you’ve grown up with and been able to experience life with. As a swimmer, an even better feeling is having a swimmer best friend.

When your best friend is also a swimmer, you just get each other. You have someone to wake up with early in the morning and get a few thousand yards in before school. They know better than anyone else what kind of mood you’re going to be in when you step into the locker room before practice. And most of all, it makes you feel like you’re not doing it all alone.

Sometimes swimming best friends start off as rivals and eventually figure out that they have more in common than they’d like to admit. Other times, they click right from the start.

My best swim friend and I are a healthy combination of both. We first started swimming together when we were nine years old. At that point, the only thing I knew about her was her name and that she was the only other girl in my lane that was basically the same speed as me. We quickly became friends once we started carpooling to practice every day. Ever since then, we’ve been best friends on deck and in the water. From lane buddies to medicine ball partners, we always have each other’s backs.

1. Accountability

Mar 21, 2015; Greensboro, NC, USA; Kelsi Worrell hugs teammate Tanja Kylliainen after winning the 200 butterfly during NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving-Championships at Greensboro Aquatic Center. Mandatory Credit: Evan Pike-USA TODAY Sports

Photo Courtesy: Evan Pike – USA TODAY Sports Images

Since my best friend and I are around the same speed in most events, we were able to help push each other at meets. I can still remember the look on my coach’s face when he saw that my best friend and I swam our race within .02 seconds of each other. He always jokes around with us that we drive really far away to compete at meets and that we end up just swimming next to each other and almost getting the same times we do in practice.

2. Encouragement

denison-cheer

Photo Courtesy: Allen Rich

No one is able to push me like my best friend does. She has her own unique way of keeping me motivated and encouraging me to do my best. She knows the right things to say to me before a race and it means much more than just a parent yelling “good luck” from a few lanes down.

3. Entertainment

arizona-recruiting-team-practice

Photo Courtesy: Emma Schoettmer

She keeps me entertained during practice with occasional laughs at the wall in between sets. We joke about always having to be in the same lane at practice or else we wouldn’t be able to function, and sometimes that has a little bit of truth to it.

4. They just get it.

louisville-teammates-laughing-day-1-prelims-2015-d1-mncaa

Aside from things related to practice, I’ve also really enjoyed being able to have someone who understands why I’m never available to hang out and why I eat more than the average human. She doesn’t notice when I smell like chlorine because she’s just as immune to the smell as I am. She knows that if I don’t answer her text message after a few minutes that I most likely already fell asleep because practice was exhausting. She’s the only friend of mine who doesn’t have to ask me if I “won my swim meet” or if I’m as fast as the Olympians. She just gets it.

If I didn’t have my best friend alongside me throughout my swimming career, I honestly don’t know if I would have made it through. That’s cliche, but it’s true. With the thousands of hours that swimmers put into the pool, it’s been so rewarding to have someone who has done it all with me. Now after our first year swimming apart in college for the first time, nothing has changed. I’m still so blessed to have her as a major part of my swimming career.

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Lee Rosie
8 years ago

Jamie Chree

Veronika Kochová
8 years ago

Lucy Stonefield

Cynthia Granata
8 years ago

Shared history, commitment, mutual respect, support in overcoming disappointment & in enjoying success…

Fiona Florance
8 years ago

Amy this was us ???

Amy Bracken
8 years ago
Reply to  Fiona Florance

Best years of my life! Bff’s! Fee ❤️

Renata Rambo
8 years ago

I wouldn’t have got to the end of swim season without you! Anita Garbo

Anita Garbo
8 years ago
Reply to  Renata Rambo

I wouldn’t even have tried swimming without you!

Paige Bayliss
8 years ago

Amy Sambell Jessica Matthews

Josie Ledgerwood
8 years ago

Tessa Meyer

Tessa Meyer
8 years ago

Yess.

Neus Perez
8 years ago

Shirley Menes Sinche

Alexandra Dobrin
8 years ago

Reinhilde Goethals

Katie Maul
8 years ago

Emily Bedford

Katie Maul
8 years ago
Reply to  Katie Maul

Miss you!

Emily Bedford
8 years ago
Reply to  Katie Maul

Katie Maul miss you so much! So proud of you graduating!!!

Katie Maul
8 years ago
Reply to  Katie Maul

We need to catch up or something! Thank you very much I will still be sending you an announcement. Should go out soon

Lisa Leone Clark
8 years ago

Marilyn Peck Hall & Susan Ortwein. My swim best friends!! Love you guys!!

Shruthi Mahalingam
8 years ago

Damini Gowda Rhia Singh Malavika Vishwanath Shraddha Sudhir xD

Malavika Vishwanath
8 years ago

3 and 4 are LITERALLY US OMG

Shruthi Mahalingam
8 years ago

Yea?

Rhia Singh
8 years ago

❤️

Shraddha Sudhir
8 years ago

????

Juliette Siddle
8 years ago

Emma Siddle ?

Ruby Morales
8 years ago

Kelli, Spot On!

Sarah T Hussain
8 years ago

Fatimah Mahmood????

Fatimah Mahmood
8 years ago

<332

Clara Alves
8 years ago

Adriana Garcia Beatriz Costa Ana Espingardeiro Beatriz Silva Vejam o último ponto, em especial eheh

Adriana Garcia
8 years ago
Reply to  Clara Alves

As best das best <3

Clara Alves
8 years ago
Reply to  Clara Alves

Adriana Garcia paneleira

Adriana Garcia
8 years ago
Reply to  Clara Alves

Tens grassa linda <3

Rana Mohtady
8 years ago

Mariam Okasha

Mariam Okasha
8 years ago
Reply to  Rana Mohtady

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Marilyn Peck Hall
8 years ago

Amy Davis Between “I feel Good” and the “Ick” we never would have made it through 4 years of NU without each other.

Amy Davis
8 years ago

Absolutely! Best memories though!

Christina Sosnowski Lowry

They understand your “dietary needs” ?

Jin Pei
8 years ago

Shannen Kay the third one’s the best??

Jana Hayaly
8 years ago

#3 is soo us ❤️❤️ Farida Barakat

Yared Cervantes
8 years ago

Pau BeauregardDiego Beauregard

Diego Beauregard
8 years ago

Cierto cierto

Pau Beauregard
8 years ago

Jajaja si !! ??

Jenny Walland Steinberg

Alexandria Marie

Amy Shaaban
8 years ago

Omar Marie Nadia Abujbarah

Bente Heller
8 years ago

Lindsey Krause Genevieve Johnson Kathryn Pound

Kathryn Pound
8 years ago
Reply to  Bente Heller

You’re cute

Sarah Cook
8 years ago

Shanice Hope Robbins

Jake Taylor
8 years ago

Chloe Louise Thompson

May Aon
8 years ago

Salma Shabana Taymour Riad

Salma Shabana
8 years ago
Reply to  May Aon

soooooo cuteeee

Dacyl Djebbar
8 years ago

Nawel Benmeziane une pensee pour vous Mes Belles
Rym Guendouz Cherrak

Nawel Benmeziane
8 years ago
Reply to  Dacyl Djebbar

Dacyl djebbar

Sevinj Jafarli
8 years ago

Lets become swim friends Nargis 😀

Nargis Allahverdiyeva
8 years ago
Reply to  Sevinj Jafarli

why not 😀

Beatriz Carmo
8 years ago

Carlos Almeida Carolina Albuquerque

Julie Lange Jørgensen

Line Gertz Josefine Bladt Wichmann Natascha Alexandra Mäkelä Green

Natascha Alexandra Mäkelä Green

Haha❤️

Line Gertz
8 years ago

Kunne ikke være mere rigtigt, haha ❤️

Josefine Bladt Wichmann

Hahah enig??❤️

Amalie Bærentsen
8 years ago

Lisa Schøn??

Lisa Schøn
8 years ago

<3 <3

Katherine Lavoie
8 years ago

Marie- Ève Landry

John Foster
8 years ago

Mike Jafari Graeme Baldwin

Sam Janes
8 years ago

Madeline Fedora

Brooke Ingold
8 years ago

Maddison Berry number 2 is so us ??

Maddison Berry
Maddison Berry
8 years ago
Reply to  Brooke Ingold

Hahaha yes

Kimberley Charland
8 years ago

Us (until you abandoned me ?) Julianna Thomas

Julianna Thomas
8 years ago

No regrets ?

Kimberley Charland
8 years ago

?

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