Editor’s Note: SwimSwam would like to welcome our newest contributor, Carly Geehr, to our team. We haven’t decided what exactly we’re going to do with Carly, but we’ll be sure to put her to good use. Carly has a long, winding history in the sport of swimming, and did more at a younger age than anyone in the modern era. Simultaneously to when Amanda Beard was “that amazing 14-year old,” Geehr was chugging along as “that amazing 12-year old.”
Beneath is Carly’s introduction to the SwimSwam readers. This is Carly: hear her roar.
To put it mildly, swimming and I have had a complicated relationship. The trajectory of my swimming career was characterized by a meteoric ascent and then a descent that seemed nearly as dramatic. What happens to those kids with lots of potential who then just seem to… disappear? For better or worse, I know a little something about that.
My 11-year-old self might as well have been stapled to the TV during the 1996 Olympics, watching with awe as my heroes in USA-emblazoned Aquablades tore through the water. A year later, after the meet of my life, I met those same heroes of mine in the lobby of a hotel near LAX – as their teammate. And they had a bag for me. And that bag contained, among other things, those very same Aquablades. And American flag caps WITH MY NAME ON THEM. Life, you’re gonna need to hold on a second, because my dreams haven’t quite caught up with you yet.
I was an also-ran at the 1997 Pan Pacific Championships in Japan. I swam next to then world-record-holder Penny Heyns in the 100 breaststroke, the event I’d qualified in, and to this day I don’t think I’ve ever been so intimidated in my life. I owe a great debt of gratitude to the many great people on that trip. To Josh Davis, for patiently listening to me sing what must have been the entire Grease soundtrack to him on the plane; to Lia Oberstar, for graciously agreeing to room with “the 12-year-old”; to Kristine (Quance) Julian, for the hugs and encouragement after I failed to meet my perceived expectations; to Jenny Thompson, for being Jenny Thompson and still sitting next to me on the shuttle that one time.
It wasn’t lost on me that I didn’t belong there. I’d only made the team through some selection fluke where they actually took a 4th place finisher from Nationals. To some extent, I felt I’d exceeded my own abilities, but I wanted desperately to not end up a young burnt out breaststroker (as many seemed to think was my destiny). So I quietly transformed into a 200 freestyler and actually had a decent shot at making the 2000 Olympic Team in the 800 Free Relay.
Then life happened. A series of poorly-timed shoulder injuries and, finally, two surgeries (temporally separated by 2 years) coupled with my firm unwillingness to subject myself to any more months of kicking through every practice saw me spending my first years at Stanford as a non-athlete. Junior year, though, still plagued by lingering shoulder issues but sort-of-almost healed, I re-joined the swim team, grateful for every pain-free meter. My comeback was ultimately derailed by a freak knee injury from off-season cross-training, and that’s when swimming and I parted ways.
Until now! Well, that’s not entirely fair. I’ve always followed swimming results like a maniac, a skill which becomes semi-relevant in the world at large approximately once every 4 years. Even if I’m not in the water, I’m still a huge fan. It makes me so happy to see all the amazing advancements in the sport, both in and out of the pool. I’m thrilled now to be contributing to SwimSwam and hope that I can use my enthusiasm for and somewhat unique perspective on the sport to bring you good news.
Welcome to the team, Carly!
Welcome to the best swimming fans website !! I Hope to enjoy your articles in the future .
Welcome to the jungle!:]
We are always talking about burned out early swimmers.It looks you have the experience to talk about it for us.
To me, it didn’t sound like Carly burned out early; she just had various injuries interrupted and then ended her career prematurely, it’s part of the risk of swimming, especially at the elite level. Burn out is more of a mental thing, I think.
Along those lines Carly, I wonder if you, or if you’re not interested, pass it off to another staff member, would write an article about tips for avoiding injuries in cross-training/dryland/off-season sports. Like: which sports are the most dangerous, which dryland exercises the most likely to produce injury, how to modify those exercises, the preferred cross-training to avoid injury, etc…. I thought of it because your story is unfortunately common among elite and regular level… Read more »
Oh heavens… I’m the last person from whom anyone should heed advice about injury avoidance! All kidding aside, I’d happily talk about the ways I’ve seen people (including myself) get injured. Would need some expert opinions about all the different topics you’ve brought up.
Yeah, i have to agree…but injury is something you have to live in high level of Sport.Lochte and Phelps are not humans.
Cielo had his knee injury since 2007, and of course, got nasty with the pass of the years and he made a surgery.But that didn t stop him to get a bunch of medals(end get two golds after that surgery).
I can not remember(in swimming) a top male athlete with 25 years-old(or more) without even a minor injury along his competitive life(except the two medley monsters).Groing,Knee,Back,Hip…its very rare to survive without minor ones.
In track, no top sprinter survive his competitive life without one, but that is more than expected because of the impact.
Right, overuse and other swimming injuries from the swimming itself are pretty inevitable even with efforts to minimize them, though as I said, I’d rather to see a focus on something a little different: off-season recreational sports, in-season crosstraining sports, and/or dryland training.
I remember interviewing you in the 1990s for an article I did for SW. I recall at the time that you struck me as being quite precocious and left with the impression that you would end up being quite successful at whatever you chose to devote yourself to, swimming or otherwise. Having seen your posts on Quora before, you definitely have a way with words, and it´s great to see you returning to your swimming roots via journalism. I look forward to seeing your posts on SwimSwam!
Also, I don´t know if you´ve noticed this, but from certain angles (like the one above – I had to do a double take) you look remarkably like a young Yana Klochkova.
I remember you! The swimming world is so small. I don’t actually know what Yana Klochkova looks like, but I know what her 400 IM looked like, so I’ll take this as a compliment 🙂
Being a 32 year old ex-swimmer myself (not really, I still swim a lot!), it’s great to know I’ll be reading your writing, because I grew up knowing your name, back in the Junior Nationals days, maybe 1998?
Welcome!! Did you swim with Anna Strohl? I swam at LESD and I think that she went to Standford around the same time.
From reading Carly’s account of her early years as a phenom & going through the disappointments that followed, I was touched. As the father of a 16 year old hard working,
dedicated swimmer, it has become apparent the journey has to start from the beginning not the end. Looking forward to reading many more articles by this bright young lady.
CARLYYY!!!
EUGEEEEENE!