Really Good Things Take Patience
By David
There are some pretty horrible people involved in the sport of swimming. If your pre-teen sons or daughters are thinking of joining the local swim club warn them that if they are any good they’ll be the subject of criticism, innuendo and down right lies before they reach the top of this sport. She must be taking steroids, he’s certainly on HGH, she’s such a bitch, he can swim fast but what about his grades, it’s well known she's a drunk; you’ll hear it all.
Just this week Rhi received an anonymous (aren’t they all) email on her blog telling the swimming world that Rhi was the swimmer, referred to in Natalie Coughlin’s book, who caused trouble at the last Olympics when she wasn’t selected in the team to swim the 4x200 final. Well, it wasn’t Rhi. In order not to make the same mistake as the author of the email, I’m going to resist the temptation to say who it was. But, dear author of the email, when you don’t know facts, and in this case you clearly do not, don’t rush into print. You only succeed in displaying your own intellectual limitations.
And finally, this week, Rhi received a second anonymous email that smugly said the author hadn’t heard much from Rhi recently and then said 57 seconds “ouch”. The 57 seconds refers to Rhi’s time in the 100 freestyle in Indianapolis. Rhi doesn’t care about these emails; but I do. They are ignorant and wrong. They are always anonymous and 99% of the time are written by authors who will never know what it’s like to swim at Rhi’s level and would never have the guts to climb back the way she is just now. The struggle to get back was something I always thought was to be admired, not something to be derided by the anonymous.
Besides which, lets look at how Rhi has got on in the last seven months since she left USC. The table below shows the times she swam at her first two or three meets after coming back to Florida. The times she swam at the Spring Nationals and her fastest times in this, her second season back home.
When you are an Olympic gold medalist on your way back to form, that’s not a bad record and certainly does not deserve to be derided by those who have never done better and don’t have the guts to tell us their name.
A couple of articles ago I mentioned how good it was to meet Hayley McGregory. I said she was one of the nicest, upbeat and positive people you could ever meet. Well at the end of this meet in Indianapolis she’s still all those things and she’s the USA National Champion at 100 meters backstroke as well. Her 1.00 puts her amongst the world’s very best. Along with Rhi, Hayley has had her critics. But around here, there are no two finer examples of the fact that really good things take patience.
There are some pretty horrible people involved in the sport of swimming. If your pre-teen sons or daughters are thinking of joining the local swim club warn them that if they are any good they’ll be the subject of criticism, innuendo and down right lies before they reach the top of this sport. She must be taking steroids, he’s certainly on HGH, she’s such a bitch, he can swim fast but what about his grades, it’s well known she's a drunk; you’ll hear it all.
Just this week Rhi received an anonymous (aren’t they all) email on her blog telling the swimming world that Rhi was the swimmer, referred to in Natalie Coughlin’s book, who caused trouble at the last Olympics when she wasn’t selected in the team to swim the 4x200 final. Well, it wasn’t Rhi. In order not to make the same mistake as the author of the email, I’m going to resist the temptation to say who it was. But, dear author of the email, when you don’t know facts, and in this case you clearly do not, don’t rush into print. You only succeed in displaying your own intellectual limitations.
And finally, this week, Rhi received a second anonymous email that smugly said the author hadn’t heard much from Rhi recently and then said 57 seconds “ouch”. The 57 seconds refers to Rhi’s time in the 100 freestyle in Indianapolis. Rhi doesn’t care about these emails; but I do. They are ignorant and wrong. They are always anonymous and 99% of the time are written by authors who will never know what it’s like to swim at Rhi’s level and would never have the guts to climb back the way she is just now. The struggle to get back was something I always thought was to be admired, not something to be derided by the anonymous.
Besides which, lets look at how Rhi has got on in the last seven months since she left USC. The table below shows the times she swam at her first two or three meets after coming back to Florida. The times she swam at the Spring Nationals and her fastest times in this, her second season back home.
| Event | Winter 07 | Spring 07 | Summer 07 | % Improvement |
| 50 Free | 26.76 | 26.12 | 25.93 | 1% |
| 100 Free | 57.75 | 57.58 | 56.20 | 1% |
| 200 Free | 2.06.82 | 2.09.89 | 2.04.30 | 1% |
| 400 Free | 4.37.63 | - | 4.26.78 | 1% |
| 100 Fly | - | 1.03.53 | 1.02.61 | 1% |
When you are an Olympic gold medalist on your way back to form, that’s not a bad record and certainly does not deserve to be derided by those who have never done better and don’t have the guts to tell us their name.
A couple of articles ago I mentioned how good it was to meet Hayley McGregory. I said she was one of the nicest, upbeat and positive people you could ever meet. Well at the end of this meet in Indianapolis she’s still all those things and she’s the USA National Champion at 100 meters backstroke as well. Her 1.00 puts her amongst the world’s very best. Along with Rhi, Hayley has had her critics. But around here, there are no two finer examples of the fact that really good things take patience.
posted by Swimwatch at 10:59 PM
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