“I Wouldn’t Be Here”: A Swimmer Story

“I Wouldn’t Be Here”: A Swimmer Story

How about a swim story that spans generations?

A family love for swimming – a passion, a way of life – that has inspired our swimmer to learn, to progress and to love it for herself.

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“I Wouldn’t Be Here …”

I grew up in a household of swimmers in Poznan (Poland) but didn’t swim much. There was so much swimming history between my Dad and Grandad. My Grandad re-started a swimming club in Poznan in 1945, right after the war ended. My Grandma volunteered there as a secretary and that’s how she met my Grandad. My Dad was a club swimmer throughout his childhood and into teenage years, later he played water polo, scuba dived and worked as a lifeguard. Through life-guarding he met my Mum.

Literally, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that affinity for water on my dad’s side of family 😂

Dad’s Passion

Growing up, I was fascinated by my Dad’s stories of competitions, training, away camps and always enjoyed time spent with his swimming mates. It seems like every time we’d drive somewhere, he’d point out a lake he swam some sort of marathon, a river where Grandad did sets against the current “to build strength and resilience”, a village where he was sent for a particularly memorable / gnarly training camp (pool temperature 12C + insufficient budget (combination of communist budget and bad planning) to feed a platoon of active growing boys training hard – he lived off stolen apples, jam and kefir for a month 🤢).

My Early Days

As a kid, I was shipped to a house by the lake to spend summers with grandparents. I was swimming / splashing with my Grandad from May to September and grew really comfortable in open water. Encouraged by my enjoyment of water, my Dad signed me up to the same club where my Grandad and Dad were when I was 6 – but I never stuck to swimming because I kept getting ill. I lasted maybe 3 months and added backstroke and dives to my swimming arsenal. So by the time I was an adult, I was comfortable in open water, could dive, swim breaststroke for hours … but couldn’t swim front crawl further than 25m.

Let’s Do This

Towards the tail-end of covid pandemic I thought I should really learn how to swim front crawl – I got it in my head that I owe it to my dad and grandad – and myself. I convinced / coerced my friend John (who did mention something to the effect of wanting to improve his technique) that we should find adult swimming lessons. We did, and started learning front crawl in October 2021. We only swam once a week for 30 min but did it quite consistently, so it was coming together, albeit a bit slowly!

Chilly Open Water!

By March, we felt confident enough in our swimming ability to sign up for a swim run towards the end of May. John pointed out we should practice open water swimming so, quite literally, we threw ourselves into the deep end of Pennington Flash. Many people are aware that Polish winters can be cold, fewer realise that summers in Poland are warm. The lake I swam in as a kid was never colder than 18C. My first open water swim in the UK the water was 12C. I didn’t check how cold the water was beforehand because it literally didn’t occur to me that it could have been this cold. Swimming in Pennington Flash that March was probably the hardest thing I ever did. I’ve never experienced that kind of challenge when running or cycling – it scared me a bit … and I loved it.

Swim Squad

Fast forward to autumn 2022 and I joined the Swim Squad. My swimming has really improved here and I met the loveliest bunch of people who like scary challenges too.

Memories & Conversation Starters

I also like swimming because it helps me to remember my Grandad and connects me to my Dad’s experiences – we finally have something swimming-related to talk about.  He LOVES hearing about the Swim Squad. This helps with motivation. Annoyingly, at the age of 71, my Dad still beats me in 100m race – as at 1 min 15, he’s a good 15 sec faster than me. I might beat him in a longer race and 100% certain I’d win in colder water, as he still only swims when the lake is warm!

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Grandad met Grandma through swimming. Dad met Mum through swimming. It’s fair to say this family has a lot to thank the water for!

As for this swimmers’ personal swim journey, the last few years have been pivotal. Learning to swim front crawl. Trying out open water swimming … in March. Joining our Swim Squad 15 months ago. Racing triathlons. Becoming the MerseyTri female triathlete of the year. Completing the Cross Mersey Swim with the Swim Squad Pod.

And the adventures have only just begun!

From those 30 minute sessions learning front crawl of a few years ago, here we are, a regular Swim Squad swimmer, swimming towards the front of lane 2, knocking on 1.30/100m pace, loving life as a swimmer and triathlete – and taking on some big endurance challenges this year!

And continuing the family passions and traditions.

What a story.

Love it.

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If you have a swim story to tell – and we all have – we would love to hear it. It can be as long or as short as you want it to be – send it in to bryan@triathlonswimsquad and let’s share your journey.