Shouts From The Stands: Continue To Chase The Dream

SwimSwam welcomes reader submissions about all topics aquatic, and if it’s well-written and well-thought, we might just post it under our “Shouts from the Stands” series. We don’t necessarily endorse the content of the Shouts from the Stands posts, and the opinions remain those of their authors. If you have thoughts to share, please send [email protected].

This “Shouts from the Stands” submission comes from Michael Gunning:

Not making an international senior team is always going to be a gut-wrenching experience. The qualifying trials in Great Britain are extremely tough, therefore more often than not you have to be close to breaking a British record in order to gain selection for the team, which ultimately means you are ranked in the top 16 in the world.

Throughout the trials some swimmers are ecstatic seeing a ‘1st’ next to their name, and quietly know they have done enough to gain their selection, but for many swimmers, qualifying for and being a part of the competition is what inspires them; so, they head back into training to work harder to carry on striving to achieve their dream of making the Commonwealth, World and Olympic Games.

I’ve been in that boat; I’ve taken seventh, fifth and fourth at the Commonwealth, World and Olympic Trials, so I know what missing out feels like. Seeing friends and teammates that you know or have grown up with make teams, you smile and celebrate with them… but inside your quietly hurting from not making the team yourself.

It tough, but it doesn’t define you as a swimmer. At the time you feel like you’ve failed, when you look into the stands people will look at you and see through you to the person celebrating next to you in the water. Sport is so tough, but anyone who competes knows what your feeling and only those people can fully appreciate your pain. YOU managed to place top 10 in your country. YOU dedicate days, months, years to do what you love and engrossed yourself in something so surreal you wouldn’t be able to explain it to anybody. YOU dared to put your heart on the line every day and go for your dream no matter what the outcome. Because of this, swimming has made me who I am today and I’m a much better person for it.

Competing at the World Swimming Championships last Summer was a surreal experience for me as it was something I’ve been striving to achieve since I was a little boy. So many people at school told me that ‘black boys can’t swim’ and took the opportunity to oppress racist and narcissistic comments towards me for having goals to compete at the Olympics, but I didn’t care and never listened to them because I wanted to be the best black swimmer here in the UK. When I stood on the starting blocks in Budapest last year, I thought of the bullies and everything I had overcome to get to that moment… and I enjoyed every single second of it.

For the Commonwealth Games this year, the selection policy was different as Team Jamaica doesn’t have a selection trials; instead the senior teams are based on your fastest ranked times produced at a FINA approved meet that has been posted during the year, and it’s up to the Jamaica Olympic Federation to grant you a spot to represent the country at the world stage.

This year, I had achieved three Commonwealth Games Consideration times and over the past 7 months, all my training and preparation has been focused towards the competing at my best and being in the best shape possible for the Games itself… However last month I received some devastating news about my dream of competing at the Games…

Unfortunately, the Commonwealth Federation have instated a new rule where there is a ‘Quota’ for every country taking part in the Games and only allocate a certain number of spaces for each country. Because Jamaica has a leadership role in Athletics and Track and Field, the majority of its allocation went to those events; disappointingly Team Jamaica has decided to allocate only 1 spot to Swimming at this year’s Commonwealth Games.

Having achieved the qualifying times and still not be selected for the international senior team was a devastating blow, particularly when I and everyone around me was expecting me to follow on from my World selection onto the Commonwealth selection… no amount of words can express the disillusionment I am feeling right now.

Like so many other athletes, I did everything in my power to get there. I threw everything into my training and know I couldn’t have given anything else to qualify, but what really hurts me the most is knowing how much potential Jamaica swimming has and how much we could have publicised Jamaican swimming in Australia for the world to see, if only we were backed and those responsible for selection believed in swimming as much as we believe in ourselves.

I have many dreams in life, but my biggest goal of all is to inspire as many people, swimmers and athletes as I possibly can and encourage them to enjoy the journey and strive to achieve the dream they’ve always dreamt of achieving. When looking at the statistics of swimming in the UK, it is shocking to see how many children leave school without being able to swim a length (25M) of the pool. In the Caribbean countries, this statistic is terrifyingly worse and this is only going to get worse if we have no role models to sow the seed in order to change that statistic.

I wish Jamaica’s Lone swimmer Alia Atkinson the very best of luck for this Commonwealth Games in Australia and I will also be watching and supporting all my fellow GB teammates and close friends in both Swimming and Diving.
Sport is such a wonderful thing and brings so many people together… I hope that my presence in the water will inspire at least one person to strive to achieve their goal, even though I have had the most rollercoaster of rides in my pursuit, and I will continue to strive to represent Team Jamaica in the future.