Greetings!
As swimmers, we know that things will not always go as planned. Our goggles break before a practice, we slip on our backstroke start, we forget our swimsuit at home, our hands are separated when we dive in: no matter what, we press through and make the best of the situation. It is in our DNA.
Often our swimming friends help us move on. A coach gives us pointers on our starts, other swimmers loan us their goggles, or our friends hug us and maybe tell us a joke after a tough race. Our swimming community is amazing, supportive, and vast.
The last couple of months, things have not gone as planned, and the thing we thought bound us has been all but taken away. However, our community is still there even without the water, practices, or events. In fact, we found out it is not the water that binds us but the people and the passion.
We want to take the time over the next few weeks to not only thank our members, coaches, volunteers, and partners but to help engage them and remind everyone how unique our swimming community is.
Again, we want to thank you for being a member of U.S. Masters Swimming, for being part of our nationwide community, and for your support of our organization in this unprecedented time. Your health and wellness is still our primary concern as we go through the COVID-19 pandemic.
We do not know when we will return to the water. But that will not stop us from being prepared. We plan to work with many organizations in the aquatics space on how we can best return to water and create guidelines for safety and distancing. We will also work with many groups within USMS to provide continued support to the entire USMS community and ensure that we do come out of this stronger, together.
