No sport in the world has escaped the chaotic clutches of coronavirus, least of all swimming.
USA Swimming, the national swim association, has released extensive guidelines for teams to practice safe swimming with social distancing.
With pool restrictions, this swim season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, for a few local swimmers who swim for H2O (Hoosier Hill Otters-Madison, IN), swim meets have been pretty nonexistent.
“It’s been a disheartening season for my kids, but they are aware and understand how the pandemic has affected their swim season and many others around the world” said Marisol Schutte “I am very grateful they had the opportunity to still have swim practices with the team and at the YMCA, but when you practice on and off for 6 months with no swim meets, it’s hard to get times to qualify for both divisional and state championships. It was a little frustrating for them.” “My kids participated in other sports/activities during swim season, so this helped to keep them focused and kept them conditioned.”
The majority of swim meets across the state were canceled or were intra-squad, inter-squad (dual or other), or virtual meets. Most were closed invites and others were limited to swimmers in the facility as well as teams.
The good news for these swimmers is their times from last year qualify them to participate in this year’s swim spring championships.
Sàntiàgo Schutte (13-14)
Nash King (11-12)
Alejandra Schutte (11-12)
Good luck to these swimmers as well as ALL local swimmers this weekend! Be safe and swim FAST!