A Swimmer’s Journey Ends in Happiness

Yesterday’s New York Times included a story that looked back on the great athletes from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Among the people profiled was a swimmer who said that she always wanted to be in the Olympics ever since she first felt the water in a pool at age 4. She pursued the dream, first a big college scholarship, then on to the Olympics in ’68, then she passed over the following games in 1972, when Mark Spitz got eight gold medals. She didn’t want to go into the water, she just stayed out of the pool for eight years.

Her story continued….she got a job as a college swim coach, married and had children. She was living a wonderful life in Sacramento until 1984. That year, the story said, her world fell apart. She got divorced from the father of her kids, and got laid off from her job as a college swimming coach. It was the bottom, and the worst year of her life. But she rebounded.

She founded a swimming school and slowly, steadily, built it up, taking in local swimmers and encouraging them. She inspired them by showing off her Olympic metals in a showcase at the school. Fifteen years later she’s sold the school for a handsome profit, and is now happily remarried. She coaches swimming part time, for fun, but doesn’t do it for a living any more.

She was down, but she fought back, and I love that the story ends on a high note. I guess I am always hoping that stories end like this.