It’s more apparent as each day passes all the different things you have to decide to give up in order to succeed in athletics. Essentially you have to make the decision that you are willing to give up your life for your sport and not the other way round.

Coming to college, especially at LSU, I thought I was about to have the most exciting college experience out of anyone. I thought that freedom would mean I don’t have to answer to anyone.

I was mistaken.

Swimming is a different animal. There are no days, practices, sets, or even practices off. Our sport is the “recovery” sport. If your arm hurts- you kick. If your leg hurts- you pull. If you cannot lift, you bike. If you cannot bike, you run. And the list goes on. Swimmers do it all, and if there is something our bodies are too broken to do, our coaches will find an alternative work out. Trust me. In my 19-year career, I have finally understood that swimming is not just a sport… it is a lifestyle.

Our coach always says, “If you want to live the life of a regular student, than leave the team.” When we are all broken, mentally and physically tapped out, he reminds us why we are here. He reminds us why we chose to be apart of the demanding, grueling, and rewarding life of not just a college-athlete, but a colligate swimmer. It is ironic because we do not even live the life of a regular college athlete.

I have learned that it is not pretty being a swimmer; I learned that before I was 10. My hair has been wet more than it has been dry. I do not bother with makeup because nobody can see my eyelashes under the goggles. My cap has ripped out much of my hair, leaving it damaged. My skin will permanently smell like chlorine, and no amount of lotion can nourish it at this point. I cannot buy nice shirts or dresses because my shoulders are bigger than most of the guy’s I know. Most people do not care if I went under pace at practice, let alone do they understand what “pace” means. In class I am expected to sit in the front row and attend every class, or else I have to run stadiums.

When my class starts at 9 and I hear somebody complain about how early it is, I just laugh and think to myself that I have now been up for 4 hours and had a really hard practice. Then I shutter because I know I have an even harder one coming up in a few hours.

My favorite accusation about swimming is when people have the nerve to say, “I bet I can beat you in a race, swimming is just floating and splashing around.”

Ha!

Ever swum with a giant water bug in an outdoor pool before? Ever been forced to hold your breath until you legitimately have to say your peace with God because you know for sure this time you will pass out? Ever know what its like to go absolutely insane because for 4 hours a day you stare at the same black line and just go back and forth in water? And I highly doubt the average person can swim more than a 400, let alone 7,000 yards twice a day… plus the weights you had to lift, the four miles you had to run, and the stadiums you had to climb, all in one day.

Most people have no clue what the sport of swimming even is; let alone how much swimmers put into it. How we do swim 11,000 (plus) yards a day, and weight lift, and watch our diets like a hawk, all for that important race at that one important meet eight months from now. And that race may only last for 20 seconds or for 18 minutes.

So no, we don’t just float and splash around. And maybe we do not get the “regular” college experience and I cannot do what others get to on a Friday night.

But let me tell you what I have done. I have qualified for Worlds, US Open, Nationals, SEC’s, NCAA, Olympic trials, and all the other meets under that. I have pushed my body to the point where no work out even can faze me because I know I can do it. I came into college being pretty slow in comparison to the rest of the country, to in just two years competing next to the best swimmers in the world for a shot at making it on a National team. I have been across the country and not only met, but swum against Olympians that I once aspired to be.

Swimming has become me. It has become everything I know and everything I relate to. Swimming is not just something that I do; it is everything that I am. Swimming continues to be my biggest battle yet my sanity all in one. It’s the thing I curse yet praise. The water is my place of solitude and is my sanctuary.

People say swimming is just a mental sport. You bet it is. You have to be more than insane to do the things we do. There is no off-season, no day off, not even morning off. There is no such thing as an easy day. There are no excuses in swimming. Trust me, every swimmer has tried to use anything and everything as an excuse, but we have to get over it. We convince ourselves every morning when our alarms go off at 4:45 that this is what we live for. That this is all worth it, all for that important race, at that one important meet eight months from now. And that race may only last for 20 seconds or for 18 minutes.

Swimming is a mental sport, and believe me when I say that swimmers are psychotic.