People have tried to make it clear to you, Ion, that you will not be recognized by USMS or SWIM magazine unless you swim a lot faster. They have also tried to point out, in a nutshell, that your attitude comes across as sour grapes.
I am going to postulate that you would like to be recognized for overcoming whatever it is you have overcome. SWIM magazine doesn't have the space to do it. And they certainly don't have the manpower (interviewers and photographers) to cover every story there is to tell, especially in regard to overcoming adversity.
So, here it is. I wish everyone would take the chance to tell their stories. Think of it as a SWIM web page for sharing of personal histories.
I know Tom Ellison has an amazing story that I wish he would put here. I know of many other swimmers who have overcome tremendous adversity. I hope this thread will become an inspiration to us all, and that we will all realize, as I have lately, that: looking at the past can be painful, so don't (as long as you don't repeat it!), who knows what the future holds, so quit worrying about it, and be happy in the present because it's the only thing you really have control over.
Cool, more stories please from other people :)
Ion, please. It doesn't matter your age when you are told you do something well. You just feel good about it, build on it, and most of all please be quiet about it. It says nothing positive about character if you dwell on the: could have been, should have been, would have been.
In sum, good for you for finally sharing something positive about yourself, on the other hand you linked it to an excuse...
Ion, I suppose we're all guilty of deciding what people actually "mean". It seems like when people tell you what they think you are saying, you change what you are saying, or skew people's words or thoughts.
I frankly couldn't care less if you are discontent. Again, just "be quiet" about it. People know who you are and what you're all about, you make it quite clear.
However, don't you ever DARE to say whether I am content or not. You don't know me... and by the way I feel quite certain that I would dominate your sob stories on land, as I would dominate your swimming in the pool. Obviously, you've ticked me off. But I digress... I just choose not to comingle my personal adversity with my swimming. In fact my swimming, along with my husband, has "saved" me.
And by the way, I am content with who I am, my achievements and my failures. I have chosen not to repeat my failures and that continually helps me become a better person.
So, in regards to this thread, you've ruined another one! This was to be a positive, feel good idea... oh well.
Have fun responding to this one. Make sure you check my grammar and punctuation carefully.
Originally posted by Ion Beza
In my lifestyle I don't value much content people who thrive on conformity.
I, for one, find it awfully hard to believe that you prefer malcontent, bitter, jaded people. Given the uplifting way you compliment others and encourage good swimming, it comes as a complete shock that you prefer to be an angry person.
Also, your posts are so darn strange anymore that it's becoming harder to discredit your lack of facts.
I think that you have strong differences in personality between me and others here:
Originally posted by Tom Ellison
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Dorothy and MarkMD are both last bloomers to our sport. NEITHER swimmer has lamented on starting late in life or used that fact to justify times that may not meet NQT’ or Top Ten Times or times that are competitive within their age groups. NOT ONE TIME!
Each of these swimmers has accepted the fact that they came to swimming late in life and are making the best of the sport they now chose to compete and enjoy. I know Mark well, he is my friend and I have talked with him many times regarding his swimming, swimming expectations, goals, stroke, attitude, swim meet strategy, swim times and most of all what he brings…(dedication) to the table we call USMS.
Marks’ attitude is one of the basic foundations or tenants of Masters Swimming. He swims to remain fit, good health, camaraderie with his fellow swimmers and for the love of the sport. Mark enters competitions and swims the best he can and never gives a second thought to WHAT times he COULD have swam had he began swimming as a child. In fact, Mark is relentless in his goal to become a faster swimmer and to someday swim NQT’s..and be more competitive within his age group.
...
and
Originally posted by Karen Duggan
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You just feel good about it, build on it, and most of all SHUT UP ABOUT IT. It says nothing positive about character if you dwell on the: could have been, should have been, would have been.
...
As I wrote earlier, "The biggest adversity that I overcome is to force my destiny.".
In swimming, but more importantly in life.
It is a heavy statement.
In one hand you have content people.
In another hand you have me being discontent.
In July 2002, I posted this quote from George Bernard Shaw:
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
Content people don't force things much, they accept and go along with things the way they are, and often don't exercise courage.
Discontent people achieve more when they are breaking grounds.
In my lifestyle I don't value much content people who thrive on conformity.
Hmmm, I read this and actually decided to go out in the beautiful weather(finally) and do some work and think.
First of all, I don't think you are dealing with a bunch of content sit on your butt kind of people. That just does not strike me as the tone of these forums. I do think we are mostly happy people and there is a difference. I can be happy and content in some things, and work on making change where needed in other things.
About being content or uncontent, that is two extremes. You can be uncontent about something, work to affect change, but be positive about how you are doing it. There are sometimes a lot of good in something, and maybe a little bad that you want to change. You don't want to tear down and trash the good with the bad. You want to make change in a positive way.
You also come across at being unhappy and uncontent in everything and it looks like nothing would make you happy. Since this is a written format and it is hard to discern feeling, that very well may not be true. I hope not, being uncontent all the time may help the world change, but it does not seem like a very happy way to go through life. Since you seem to distain content, happy people, that maybe OK with you.
It is too nice of a day after endless rain to spend on the computer.
HAve a nice day.
Originally posted by Ion Beza
In the early 90s, Graham Smith and Tom Johnson said that I would have been a heck of a swimmer had I been started at a younger age.
And this, folks, is the reason for the dwelling on the V02Max and early bloomer theories. Becasue he didn't start early and can't be that heck of a swimmer, an excuse was born.
Originally posted by Karen Duggan
...
I am going to postulate that you would like to be recognized for overcoming whatever it is you have overcome. SWIM magazine doesn't have the space to do it.
...
I think that you postulate that recognition by SWIM magazine is my highest ceiling.
No.
In Canada, in the 90s, coach Howard Firby (the equivalent to George Haines (U.S.) and Don Talbot (Aus.)) and Graham Smith (world record holder in the 80s) recognized my swimming.
The biggest adversity that I overcome is to force my destiny.
I won't dwell on it, it is my private life, but in a nutshell it involves being born somewhere, forcing the issue of being elsewhere, and in the process being mentored in learning by a Fields prize contender.
(Note: the Fields prize is the equivalent to the Nobel prize, in mathematics).
Howard Firby is dead now.
In the early 90s he said that I have a beautiful style.
At that time I was doing bilateral breathing.
I first noticed asthma symptoms and thought that it was food poisoning in 1999.
In the early 90s, Graham Smith and Tom Johnson said that I would have been a heck of a swimmer had I been started at a younger age.
I was doing then 200 meter free repeats leaving every 2:45, Long Course.
Tom Johnson is today Canada's national coach.
