The Love Of Swim Parents

Courtesy of Katie O’Sullivan

You’ll know how much I love you when you have your own kids. My mom used to say that. I still don’t have kids, but I know what she could have said instead: you’ll know how much I love you if you ever coach swimming. In the eight years I’ve been coaching; it has become increasingly clear how much she loved me and how much the parents of my teammates loved them. There’s no possible reason they would have embarked on the crazy journey of being swim parents without that love.

I did not know until my first season coaching how tired the parents (and coaches) were when Sunday finals rolled around. All the times my mom drove home to St. Louis from Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Oklahoma or a handful of other places…I was sleeping. I admit I even rolled my eyes when I heard parents or coaches complaining. Why were they tired? They didn’t have to swim.

It took being a coach to know that those weekends are demanding for all involved. There’s the physical aspect of prelim/final meets with essentially no breaks in between. Or standing for long sessions while fighting off pool flu. But there is also the emotional exhaustion of seeing a swimmer who has worked hard all season come up a little short. Or walking off the deck so teenagers don’t see you tear up when those cuts are made. I know now that my parents and coaches were exhausted too. I know now how much love it takes to be a swim parent. Every parent might not love swimming, but they love their kids so they do it anyway.

This weekend the CSP Tideriders host their 79th Annual Summer Invite. That’s 79 years of sacrifices by parents to give their own kids, and hundreds more, a weekend of swimming. Seventy-nine years of timing, officiating, meet directing, sorting awards and serving hospitality to tired coaches. I appreciate the work our team parents do to put on this meet. It’s so much more demanding than I ever could have imagined as a swimmer.

On Sunday, parents will leave our meet and drive home to Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Oklahoma and Kentucky while their swimmers sleep obliviously in the back seat. I’ll have a short drive home on Sunday, but even on the short ones, I call my mom.

About Katie O’Sullivan

Katie O’Sullivan coaches for the CSP Tideriders in St. Louis. She works full time in public relations and is a graduate of the University of Louisville (MBA) and the University of Missouri’s Journalism School.