Swimming their Little Hearts Out!

Last yer the swim season was at the end of the school year, but this year it was at the beginning. So practices started in September, two days per week. Micaiah was so excited to have a chance to do it this year. The boys did great at practice and were so excited about their meet. Orin was nervous and Micaiah didn't really have a clue what was going on and just saw it as fun.

There are about 7 international schools that participate and the meet is at a different school each year. This year it was at a school about an hour away so they rented a bus for us all to go in together. The kids thought it was super cool. 

Since this was our second meet we actually had a little clue as to what was going to happen. Right when we arrive the kids all warm up for about 10 minutes.

Everyone gets together and the coaches give out instructions.

Each kid gets a printout with the races they are going to be in and they wear it around their neck (except for when they are in the water.)

And they are off. I didn't get a picture of every race. Orin and Micaiah were in the same races. They did individual freestyle, individual backstroke, freestyle relay, and medley relay (Miciah did breaststroke and Orin did backstroke). Micaiah was just having fun! I think he came in dead last of about 15 kids in Freestyle but he had no clue. Just a big smile on his face.

There was a ton of waiting around. The meet went from about 8:30am until 2:30pm and their 4 races lasted about 1 minute each.

The results are entered into the computer and then printed out and posted on a board.

Orin was so nervous about the backstroke. It's his best stroke. There were about 15 kids competing and he was really hoping to medal, especially since he came in 4th last year by 1 second. Unfortunately, he came in 4th again this year. He was so disappointed. It almost made me cry to see him tear up when he saw the 4th place.

The kids ended up getting 3rd place in both medley's. They were super excited because they wanted to get medals so badly! They actually lucked out because they came in 4th in both races but in both instances another team that came in before them got disqualified.