Future Olympian?

Drew's latest session of swim lessons coincided with the start of the Beijing Olympics and it definitely made an impression on Drew. One of the first events we watched was a swimming race and Drew immediately exclaimed "Big arms Mommy! They're doing big arms." Later he commented on the swimmers' ability to "kick all the way to the wall." On our way to lessons one day I asked him if he wanted to do big arms just like the swimmers on TV. He responded "I will try Mommy."

In his last class of this swimming lesson session, the teacher made it more of a free day for the kids. So they donned life jackets (the only day they wear those) and headed outside to the diving pool, complete with 3 diving boards. First they just swam around.


Here Drew practices his backstroke. Look out Aaron Peirsol!














Then he switched over to the freestyle...aka big arms.

Then his teacher asked Drew and the three other children whether they wanted to jump off the diving boards. Drew excitedly said "Yeah!" He and the other little boy even wanted to jump off the highest diving board (3M), though his teacher obviously thought better of that. Anyway, here is a mid-air shot I managed and a video of Drew's repeated trips to the 1M diving board. Look at that form! Pay close attention to his giggle right at the end of the video for an idea of his excitement level. He was so happy. No fear whatsoever. He couldn't wait to tell Daddy all about it. And he's still talking about it, occasionally mentioning with a bit of sadness that "the big one was too high for me." No doubt in my mind he would have jumped off that one if his teacher had let him.

It was especially nice that Drew had swim lessons for the week between his birthday and surgery that my parents were here for. Drew was very excited to show off his swimming skills for Grandma and Grandpa and they enjoyed seeing him in action, especially going down the big slides (all by himself) and jumping off the diving board.


So whether Drew's swimming and "diving" turns into competitive quality remains to be seen, but if they add cannonballing (or maybe more accurately freestyle jumping) to the Olympic slate of events, then, in 2024, look out world!