Is Swimming Eating Its Young?

... NKFrench, were you referring to Dana Vollmer? She seems like she is back in great form, and ready to serve notice in Melbourne, good luck to her! Yes. Dana seems to be doing quite well. At a recent college invitational she swam some lifetime bests to get NCAA automatic cuts. She has struggled with more adversity in her swim career (mono, back/shoulder injuries, reconstructed knee ACL, heart radio ablation, and symptoms of Long Q-T syndrome; the 50-minute drive each way to practice for 2-a-days) than most of us face in a lifetime. Sometimes the adversities and downtime let you reflect on what you want, and this is all her choice to continue. The international competition landscape in the 200 Free (her Olympic individual event) will be very different in 2008 and who knows what can happen between today and then. Her brother is also an extremely talented swimmer, but did not have the goal of being an elite swimmer. His heart is with karate, where he is a black belt and began his own studio business in high school. He is a good example of how things work out best when the kid gets in a program that match his goals. It can be hard - the fitness/high school group would not be able to challenge him in practices; yet the elite/senior group had attendance commitments that exceeded what he wanted to put in.

... NKFrench, were you referring to Dana Vollmer? She seems like she is back in great form, and ready to serve notice in Melbourne, good luck to her! Yes. Dana seems to be doing quite well. At a recent college invitational she swam some lifetime bests to get NCAA automatic cuts. She has struggled with more adversity in her swim career (mono, back/shoulder injuries, reconstructed knee ACL, heart radio ablation, and symptoms of Long Q-T syndrome; the 50-minute drive each way to practice for 2-a-days) than most of us face in a lifetime. Sometimes the adversities and downtime let you reflect on what you want, and this is all her choice to continue. The international competition landscape in the 200 Free (her Olympic individual event) will be very different in 2008 and who knows what can happen between today and then. Her brother is also an extremely talented swimmer, but did not have the goal of being an elite swimmer. His heart is with karate, where he is a black belt and began his own studio business in high school. He is a good example of how things work out best when the kid gets in a program that match his goals. It can be hard - the fitness/high school group would not be able to challenge him in practices; yet the elite/senior group had attendance commitments that exceeded what he wanted to put in.