Sporting memories: Losing an important swimming match with grace as a child

I had mentioned some weeks ago about how I accidentally became one of the best youth swimmers in the state of Virginia. In summary, I didn't intend to be a member of the swim team but did go to the public pool regularly. One day when I was playing a pool game called "Sharks and Minnows" the high-school swim coach saw how I dominated the game with ease despite playing with kids of all ages. He later put me on the swim team a year earlier than you are supposed to be on it, and within a year I was dominating almost all meets, especially in the breast stroke.

Ok, I'll be honest here: Other than breast stroke, I was an average swimmer. They put me in other events but it was not expected that I would win. I would place in the top 3 or even 5 depending on who our opponents were but most often than not I would be shut out of 1st place by members of my own team. I just didn't have what it took to excel in freestyle, backstroke, and especially butterfly - which is a stroke I have found extremely difficult to master all of my life and cant even do at all now.

In breast stroke though, my team would put me into "heats" or races with confidence that I was going to absolutely blow away the competition. This is what normally ended up happening as well. In my first year where I was participating as an 8th grader against people in high school from 9th to 12th grade, I didn't have much confidence and really felt out of place. I would still regularly place in the top 5 though. By the time I was halfway through my freshman year (still up to 4 years younger than my competitors) I was regularly dominating the pack. By my sophomore (10th grade) virtually nobody came anywhere near my times both on and off my team.

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There was one meet that things didn't go according to my usual dominance expectations though and even though it was many years ago, I can still remember that meet and the person who defeated me. I don't recall the name of their city or school but their mascot was the Amberjacks, ours was the Gators.

I lined up with the other swimmers just like I always do and waited for the digital bell to tell us to jump in the water and get it on. I recall reaching the wall and making the mistake of looking to the lane next to me and noticing that one of my opponents was ahead of me. After 50 meters, this is something that I had not seen in nearly a year. Nobody beats me at this event. I panicked and started to make mistakes that do not help you even though it seems intuitive to "just swim faster." This doesn't work in breaststroke and will actually slow you down. Rather since one of the reset movements in breaststroke actually creates more resistance and slows you down, getting in more strokes is not the way to get ahead of someone that is ahead of you in this event.

So struggle as I may to catch up with this opponent, I was actually my own worst enemy in this event. If I had just calmed down, focused on my technique and really dug into the "pull" when underwater, I probably could have caught up with him. I didn't though, and this is the same mistake that I would later make at the State finals where I was a favorite but instead placed 11th.

I was so accustomed to winning every breaststroke event at that point in my life that perhaps it would be expected that I would react like a spoiled kid, maybe even cry. But I guess that I was a bit more mature when it came to individual competition sports because I was actually very adult in my conceding to this guy who was better than I was on that day. I gave him a high-5 and told him "awesome job!" He was extremely happy and I think but do not know for sure that he was already coached in how I was the guy to beat. He beat me that day, and I am happy that I handled the loss the way that I did.

Finishing 2nd doesn't destroy your record very much and by the time the season was over I was well ahead of everyone else in the region for the 100m breaststroke, including the guy that beat me that one time. He was back in 6th place overall and I can't understand how that is possible when you consider that everyone does the same amount of meets.

I think that this guy, whose name I learned at the time but long ago forgot, wasn't actually an exceptional swimmer but just had a really good day. It can happen to anyone involved in sports and it certainly happened to me in sports where I wasn't always good like basketball.

Despite being the only person to take me out of 1st place in our region for the entire year, he never made it past regionals. When I saw him at the regional meet I will admit that I was a bit worried because he was my Achilles and had proven that already. In regionals maybe it was he who sat back on his laurels because he "knew" he was the best but I absolutely destroyed him in that event and he finished 4th.

It was nice that he came over with a look of joy when I won and congratulated me the same way I did for him at our meet many months before. Unfortunately for him, placing 4th meant that he was not going to advance since they only take the top 3 from any event to move forward. I thought that was a real shame because even though it was because he bested me that we kind of became buds, he was not going to be joining me in the next leg of the statewide competition.

I never saw that guy the following year and he might have been a senior and that was his last year of eligibility or he might have quit. I don't know. This is well before the days of exchanging messenger information.

My victory here is one that was kind of eye-opening for me. I felt good coming back and returning to the top spot of the podium, sure. I also felt good that day when I got beat and recognized that my opponent simply did better than me. In individual sports like swimming I think there is a much higher level of respect and camaraderie than there are in team sports and rather than feeling animosity towards someone that does better than you, you instead feel like giving them the admiration they deserve for besting you, even if it was just a one-off.

I wonder where that guy is now? I hope he went on to do great things, even if it wasn't in the breaststroke.