By Siobhan Dale, Swimming World College Intern
When I was about 11 years old, I swam with a girl who missed qualifying for the Olympic team by one hundredth of a second. The Olympic Trials are always one of the most exciting times for swimmers. It’s the moment where swimming becomes nationally admired and watched.
The Olympics and the build-up to it are our World Cup, our NBA playoffs, our Super Bowl. It’s the time where the United States learns the faces of its representatives in sport. The swimmers who final will stand behind the blocks and have their names called out to an eager nation. The names of the first and second person to touch the wall will be remembered and esteemed, the others will be forgotten. It’s a time when one hundredth symbolizes far more than a fragment of a second.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Olympic Trials just as much as the next swimmer. The Olympic Trials represent all the best parts of swimming. They’re exciting, tense, and you can feel yourself replicating the crowd’s emotions through your TV screen.
But like all performances, the Olympic Trials has a backstage. Behind that backstage curtain all the worst parts of swimming are depicted – heartbreak, disappointment, fear.
For every winner there is a loser and for every success there is a failure, though most cruelly there is never a balance. A winner experiences success and a loser experiences failure. So as the Olympic Trials approach I want to write a piece for all the losers, for all the swimmers who have ever been on the lower weighted half of the scale. So here’s to those swimmers who don’t succeed:
To those who don’t succeed,
Congratulations.
You got up every morning and experienced the worst deja vu when diving back into the pool each evening. You went to all the practices and ate moderately well and you even did some extra workouts on your own. Swimmers don’t always get what they deserve. Sometimes long days and hard work yields bronze medals. Maybe you didn’t get the gold. It doesn’t mean you don’t deserve the pride that goes with that medal.
To those who don’t succeed,
Someone else was better.
But that doesn’t mean you are worse. It doesn’t mean you “are” anything. Success and failure symbolize past tense objectives. Dreams, aspirations, and spirit symbolize current goals, all of which are achievable. Even if you have failed one hundred times before it doesn’t mean that the one hundred and first time won’t be successful.
To those who don’t succeed,
Be brave.
There is no strength without opportunity for weakness. There is no will without the chance to say “I will not.” There is no fight unless you have something to fight against.
To those who don’t succeed,
It would be rude to tell you to try again.
Any swimmer knows how hard another has to work just to be a member of the sport. I can’t tell you to try more because I know you’ve tried enough already. Maybe you weren’t good enough for the success you strived for, or fast enough for the time you wanted. But you are enough. You don’t have to try again to prove what you have already proven. It would be pointless to tell you to try again because you have already proven that you will.
To those who don’t succeed,
I’m sorry.
Your time was less than you needed but you are more than you know.
To those who don’t succeed,
You will.
They should try being the least talented swimmer, who worked their ass off in training, to come towards the back of the field in every open meet ever entered. My only taste of success was some club championship medals. At least if they made it as far as you suggest, they were talented, had many successes below international level, and probably inspiring to many other swimmers in their local area, even if they didn’t get the national or international recognition.