Post Grad Swimmers. A new and growing factor in Swimming.
At first glance, Karie Haglund may seem like the rest of the swimmers in her training group, but when she gets out of the pool you notice that she doesn’t quite fit in with the teenagers in the water with her. That’s because Karie is 23 years old. Karie graduated from Penn State in May and when she finished her last race at NCAA’s in March she thought she was done with her competitive swimming career—and she cried. “I didn’t think I had fulfilled my whole potential, but I was also ready to have something else in my life besides swimming. I didn’t want swimming to define me anymore” she said.
The world of swimming is changing before our eyes. Have you ever heard of a ‘Post Grad’ swimmer? Well, I am here to tell you that this is the future of fast swimming in the US. In the old days, for the small percentage of swimmers who had the opportunity to swim in college, graduation day was the end of one era, and the beginning of the next. You get a job and take all of the dedication and focus reserved for swimming, and reapply it your career. Get Married. Have a kid. Have another kid. Then maybe, just maybe, realize that something is missing and you join a USMS team!
The tide is changing. Elite swimmers are continuing as professional athletes at Post Grad programs like FAST and NBAC and surprise, surprise…they are swimming fast. Really FAST! I believe that this incredible group of swimmers will keep the USA at the top of the world swimming stage. 2012 Olympic hopefuls like Kara Lynn Joyce of FAST are bringing professional swimming to a whole new level.
But what about the swimmer with no endorsement deals, and little hope for an Olympic gold medal? You might figure that these swimmers would take the prescribed path of job-married-kids, but this trend is changing too. Over the past 10 years a surprising number of swimmers are sticking with the sport after college, and not just to hop in the water for a few hours a week to keep the beer belly away. They are swimming to prove to themselves they can still go best times, and they are actually doing it. Just look at the psych sheet for Senior Nationals next week and notice how many swimmers are over 22 years old.
I first ran into Karie at a Masters swim practice outside of Baltimore, MD (here’s a blog post from our first meeting back in January). Karie is training hard, working full time at Target, and has qualified for Senior Nationals. I talked with Karie about her journey through this new world of adult but not quite Masters swimming. “My whole life has revolved around swimming which is why I have difficulty giving it up,” she said.
Karie got a job with Target in Baltimore during her senior year and moved right after graduation. After a few months she began to feel that something was missing. “I didn’t swim from March through October but it started to feel like I needed something constant in my life. I was in a new town with a new job and new friends and no family.” She called McDonogh School looking for lap swim times, but they didn’t have any. They had a Masters team and needed a part time age-group coach, so she went in. “Once I got back in the water, I knew I still had potential left in me and I couldn’t just lap swim,” she said.
In January, Coach Scott Ward, head coach of the Eagle Swim Team, offered Karie the chance to swim with his senior group and at first she was surprised that she could keep up. There is no doubt that working 50 hours a week and training is hard to manage. However, Coach Ward has been flexible and adapts workouts for her so that she can get the most benefit out of a practice, even if she does have to leave early for work.
Another challenge has been swimming on a team with kids much younger than she is. “I can relate to them on a swimming level,” she says, “but sometimes I do have to censor the things I say. I’ve taken on more of a mentor/role model role with them.” While she feels that Coach Ward is, “exactly right for me, right now” she also admits that she would jump at the chance to swim for a Post-Grad program.
Although, Karie is currently seeded 75th in the 100 Breaststroke, she says that she has, “a lofty goal of top 8, but I think that top 16 is doable. I swim fast under pressure. I’ve only been back in the water for 6-8 months and I know I have a lot of potential left. Top 16 is realistic” At this point in her swimming career, Karie is constantly redefining her goals, “I’m content, but never satisfied.”