Swim Stars Live 3

I attended the Mutual of Omaha Swim Stars Live 3 a few nights ago.  There were fourteen bona fide swimming stars on the stage.  However, I spent the whole evening watching the stars in the eyes of the nine swimmers, ages five to nine, that attend the event with me.  We had played "Who Am I?" at practice for two weeks.  I gave the swimmers each a biography and a photo of a swimmer.  They read their biographies aloud to the group and we played a game of guessing from a list of names I provided.  After the identity of the swimmer was revealed, we talked more about that particular star.  The kids loved hearing that Peter Vanderkaay has a yellow lab named Skyler, and that Aaron Piersol works to teach children about protecting the oceans, and that Kate Ziegler likes to go with her mother to get their nails done to celebrate swimming victories, as much as they learned hearing about Matt Grevers winning a silver medal in the 100 back in Beijing and that Mark Gangloff swims three to five hours a day, six days a week.

Several swimmers, with the help of their parents, did even more research and learned more about these amazing athletes.

It added to the enjoyment of the Mutual event for all of us that there was not one unknown face on the dais. 

Our kids are kids are exposed to so many people.  Our National Team swimmers seem to be a group of fine role models, as athletes and as people.  I'm glad we took the time to get to know them better at practice and plan to continue to introduce my swimmers again and again to the people at the top of our national swimming pyramid.  I'm going to make it part of our practice routine.  I encourage all swimming parents to support their swimmers in efforts to learn more about the sport and the participants.  Take the time to learn about the good works being done by every last one of them - both in and out of the water. 

I feel lucky and grateful to be right here in Omaha where we can participate in Mutual's event at their headquarters.  We are all looking foward to welcoming their Swim Stars to Omaha in June for the Trials!

Swim for good times - fast and fun!

-jn