The Swim Meet

It was wild.  I'll put reviews of swim meets on the sports page later on, but since this was the first one ever, and since it took up most of the weekend, I thought I would cover it here. 

Swimming is huge out here in the mid-Atlantic region.  There are swim meets for kids as young as 6 (even younger, actually).  There is actually a 200 yd freestyle swim for 6 year olds, which Kate and I agree is way over the top!  That's a LONG way to swim.  Try it sometime, if you don't believe me.  It's 8 laps of nonstop swimming.

Anyway, the meet Steven competed in was for kids aged 9 through 18.  Steven is 9, and he's a "young 9" at that.  So he was one of the youngest there, and probably one of the greenest too!  He is so calm and seemingly unruffled, though. The coaches seem to think he knows what he's doing, and he doesn't ask any questions!  He was so composed that he almost failed to check in to his first event.  Eventually his coaches saw that he wasn't in line, and his heat was coming up in 2 races, and so...  They went and got him.  I was stressing though, from way up in the parent zone.

The pool deck was pretty much covered with swimmers, coaches, and the swimmers' gear.  There were hundreds of swimmers there, most of whom were from one mammoth team in the area, all wearing the same swim cap.  It was relatively easy to spot Steven in the crowd because he wasn't wearing a swim cap!  It's sort of like a "Where's Waldo" game to find your kid in that crowd!

The parents aren't supposed to hang around on the pool deck.  The viewing area was absolutely packed with parents.  Some camped out all day in the 3 rows of bleachers.  Some set up a folding chair out in the aquatic center lobby and just kept an eye on the events through the windows to know when to go into the sweltering heat of the viewing area to watch particular races.  That's what I did.  I hung out in the semi-air conditioned lobby along with about 200 or so other parents, grandparents, siblings, etc.  I'm not sure if the space was occupied past the fire marshall's limits, but I wouldn't have been surprised! 

It was an intimidating scene.  Steven retreated into the world of Pokemon Heart and Gold where he found his happy place while playing the DS and making a new friend.  Of course he can't remember the boy's name, or what team he swims on even!  Steven's the one in the black T-shirt.  He's hunched over his DS.  This was how he was for about 90 minutes straight in between his races!

Here is a picture of him before swimming in his trademark hugging-his-hands-to-himself pose.  He stands like this before every "big race".

And on the starting blocks for the 100 yd free.  That's 4 laps and 3 flip turns!  The longest free of his life thus far.