There is no doubt that the pandemic has turned life rather dry for all of us; any sense of spontaneously has disappeared in the all-enveloping haze of germophobia, through which it is hard to catch any glimpse of impulsive travel or nights out. However, for fifteen year old national swimmer Josephine Surminski, it is rather more literal than that. The air of chlorine, which once seemed intertwined with her being, and the normality of dripping hair ceased to creep its way into her daily routine for six months.
When the first national lockdown was announced on March 23rd, life came to an alarming halt. Coronavirus, which had previously existed merely as a distant concept engulfed in an air of enigma which sent tendrils of fear through society, became a reality, and one that was even more daunting than imagined. With immediate effect, the confusing mist of COVID-19 seeped into all aspects of life; slamming the brakes on all normality that keeps the vehicle of society in motion. With jobs and school stripped away from the majority of society, people were swiftly carried, by the waves of coronavirus, into a whole new form of life.
However, it was s an entirely different story for swimmers. More than just a sport, swimming is a lifestyle, and for Swim England's 188,499 club members, lockdown extended to their second life, the one that exists in a pool; holding the feel of water in a suspension of time. Among these swimmers is Josephine; a dedicated national breastroker who, prior to the pandemic, was swimming “twelve hours a week with an extra hour of land training”. Needless to say, swimming is more than just a commitment for the aspirational swimmer.
The closure of the UK’s 3,170 swimming pool sites took a severe toll on the life of swimming. While reflecting on the significance of swimming for her, Josephine conveyed it as a time to “switch off from everything happening in (her) life and just get in the pool”. Before coronavirus became the harsh reality of daily life, Josephine would normally compete “on average one weekend a month, often more”; a way to mark the consistent progress she has made during training. Now, having not “competed since March”, the young swimmer reflects that the return to training and competing will be “difficult” due to the abundance of rules, which burden the routinely nature of the sport.
With sport acting as an ideal source of endorphins which generate a feeling of empowerment, relaxation and optimism, it is no surprise that the momentary return to swimming in September was, for Josephine, “great” and a way to “stop worrying”. This momentary restoration of what is, for the swimmer, normal life, left her craving the return to her sport with a new ferverency as she is “looking forward” to it “being permanent again”.
As we plunge (pardon the pun) into Josephine’s intense world of swimming, the question has to be posed: is life as a national swimmer all it may, on the surface, seem? Though it is undeniable that the glory established through swimming exists as an irrepressible fire of pride, it is also crucial to emphasise how much of a commitment being a full time athlete is. Josephine expresses the sacrifices which need to be made to maintain such a level of athleticism, describing how it “often prevents (her) from having a social life during the week”, rendering the break from swimming somewhat of an opportunity to “make the best of every situation”.
As we look to a future life without coronavirus, with the chance of a vaccine rounding the corner, a new buzz of elation has been released within the sporting world. However, much the same with every aspect of society, normality will not quite be obtained for quite some time. From what Josephine has seen so far, she believes that the pandemic has impacted the future of swimming, evident, in her words, through the delayment of the Olympics (a pinnacle time in the sporting industry) and the fact that those who were “lucky enough” to have a pool during lockdown had an “advantage”. Josephine sums up the pandemic in the sporting world by saying it “will be a while before everyone’s on the same page again” -- a perfect microcosm of the effects of the Pandemic on the whole of society.
