Aidan F

So You Say Swimming Is Not a Sport?

Being on a swim team is fun and games during the summer, but when one is swimming for their high school swim team, it is an entirely different matter. Even if few people get cut from the team, there is a series of larger high school competitions that whittle down the amount of swimmers competing. Swimming is much more difficult than many people assume it to be. I have heard the phrase, “You swim? Swimming is not a sport,” enough times throughout my life to the point of developing an intense loathing for those who utter it. This also includes the senseless hooligans who mention such opinionated lies, who should not be associated with in any way and should be taught a lesson on why they are dead wrong. Clearly, there are numerous reasons for why swimming is arduous and demanding.

First of all, there is training, an endless amount of rigorous training. One does not swim “casually” and expect to be the best in their specific event. There must be an unwavering commitment to practicing. Swim practice isn’t just jumping in the pool and swimming a length of the pool every once and a while, there is core and muscle work. Swim practice is jumping in the pool and going at full tilt the entire practice, sprinting every sprint set, making every interval, and when you get out of the pool, you run and do more exercises to stay in shape, no matter how tired you are. High School practices are as intense as you make them, so the returns on the effort put in reflects your work effort. Some may say, “It’s just flopping back and forth from each end of the pool. It’s not that hard.” I’d like to see those people get up and complete a single swim practice without taking a break to rest. There is substance and meaning to our training. And, with good preparation, fantastic results in a short race leaves one exhausted. For instance, as after swimming non-stop and preparing for an entire winter, a measly 100 yard swim in fifty one seconds left me unable to stand upright.

Competition, on the other hand, is a completely different. Those who are not naturally talented and those who do not practice hard enough get completely crushed during swim meets. Without the proper work ethic, a person will never get any faster at swimming. Paying mind to high school competitions in Virginia, there are three levels of competition: districts, regionals, and states. District competitions are when schools face other schools that are nearby; they are at most a one hour drive away. After the regular swim season is finished, the final district competition is what decides who moves on to the next level of competition, Regionals. There are two ways to move into the next level of competition, the first is by placing within the top six places in a specific event. The second is by must making a regional cut, i.e. one must swim faster than a specified time. The same is true for moving on to States. It is for this reason that there is no need for “cuts” on the team as the system is set up such that qualifying for harder events is extremely difficult. I made states through an individual even by a one hundredth of a second margin (0.01 seconds). These extremely small margins make the difference between winning and losing, and therefore prompt some unusual tactics to shave off the slightest bits of time. Small things like shaving or wearing high quality speed suit can make a difference come race day.

Even with the commitment to practice and training for an event, one usually swims one or more events in a given competition. This can make one extremely tired, especially when pushing their body past their limit time and time again. Imagine as swimming as fast as you can, moving your arms in rapid, massive strokes until they’re burning, and kicking until you cannot feel your legs. Now, take all of that and do it again, and again, and yet again, but don’t forgo the correct form and technique, and don’t forget that you can’t make any mistakes. One itsy bitsy mistake can be the difference between first and second place in an important race. Then, take all of above and repeat it until up to four times within a day. It is physically and mentally exhausting, thereby implying that swimming is not as “recreational” of a sport as some people say.

In conclusion, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence supporting that swimming is a sport. The definition of a sport is, “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” And, clearly, swimming is an activity that involves vast amounts of physical exertion and skill against other swimmers. Swimming is challenging and tough, and there is nothing that can prove that otherwise. Swimming is a sport.