Swim Squad Awards 2025: A Love Letter To The Squad

Swim Squad Awards 2025: A Love Letter To The Squad

Sometimes I have to stop and take it in. Swim Squad. Triathlon coaching. The sheer number of people I get to work with. The way this community loops people together who may never have crossed paths otherwise.

“You’re so lucky to have a business like that,” people say.

And I do feel lucky. More than lucky. Grateful doesn’t even come close.

To me, this isn’t just work. It’s a pulse. A rhythm. A place where we come together, lives intersect and grow. A place where people decide – consciously, deliberately – to belong.

And then I look at you – the swimmers, the triathletes, the dreamers, the late-night heroes and the weekend warriors.

The ones who push past comfort. The ones who turn up when the night draws in and their bodies are tired. The ones who quietly improve, quietly surprise themselves, quietly cheer for others.

To the Squad: I love what you are.

I love that week after week, despite busy lives and full calendars, you choose to show up and be part of something bigger than yourselves.

I love the mix – the professions, the ages, the abilities, the experiences – and the way it somehow blends into a single living thing: a community of effort, encouragement, and shared ambition.

I love the impact you have on one another. The pride and the struggle that belong to everyone. The way what you learn here spills into your races, your days, your lives.

I love the legacy we’re building. Not just pool times or PBs. Not just medals or finishes. But a culture – an ethos – built on the simple, powerful truth that someone will always be beside you. Someone will always notice your effort. Someone will always hold belief in your potential, even in the moments when you can’t.

I love the memories. The training sessions, the races, the laughter and groans. The small victories that feel enormous when you know the journey behind them. The shared moments that become stories – retold, remembered, treasured.

I love the potential. The swimmers who haven’t found us yet. The records waiting to be broken. The breakthroughs that will catch us by surprise. The lives we haven’t touched yet, but will.

And most of all, I love that I get to be part of this. Not at the centre. Not as the main character. Not as the architect. But as one thread in a fabric far bigger than me – woven with care, courage, effort, and heart.

I’m not the centre. I’m part of it. A proud part. A grateful part.

Proud in the way you are when you’ve seen someone grow, when you’ve watched them show up again and again, when you’ve witnessed the quiet, unglamorous work that no one else sees. Amazed beyond words. Humbled more than I ever expected. And somehow, through all of it, I’ve found my own place too – a place where I belong.

And in that belonging, I feel it in every session, every race, every shared moment – all of it made possible by us.

This is a love letter to the Squad – to you, to us, to everything we’ve shared, everything we’ve built, and everything we’ve yet to become.