SAISA SWIMMING

The swimming tournament at the American International School of Chennai was a great success. I travelled as the co-captain together with Gyungmo from 10th grade. I had never been captain of a sports team before but I noticed that especially the younger swimmers listened to me a lot more, and i was able to take on a leadership position amongst them. 

All the gecko swimmers did incredibly well, everyone managed to improve their personal bests, some even as much as 20 seconds faster. Our coaches were all at awe by our improvement during the competition. 

I was able to place in the B finals for every single one of the races I swam, placing between 7th and 12th place and being able to earn points for the team. It felt good being able to contribute to our teams overall score, however, I feel like I did not swim at my fullest potential. 

I am really proud of the way that our swimming team came together during the tournament, no matter the ages, 6th, or 12th, grade, we were all able to come together, make jokes, play games, and enjoy each other's company. A team like that is very difficult to find but I am so happy that our swim team was able to connect in the way that we have. 

The 3 days passed by way too quickly but a lot of memories were made. The geckos were always kind and supportive to athletes from other teams, and were often seen exchanging sportsmanship pins or just talking and hanging out. The younger swimmers were always eager to chant cheers and to jump up and down screaming when one of our team members were in the pool, the atmosphere was amazing. It was nice being able to get out of our usual school community and come together during this tournament and have the fun we did. 

During the award ceremony there were 2 possible trophies for the age groups and gender, and 2 trophies for the overall scores, meaning, that there were 16 possible trophies to give out, we managed to receive 2 of those trophies by earning the 10-12 age group boys and girls runners up. 

This was a huge achievement and scored a lot of points for the team, although we placed last overall we were not disappointed because we knew that every single person on the team was able to step up and earn points for the team and able to enjoy themselves doing so. 

This was my last SAISA swimming and by far one of the best ones I have been a part of. As captain, in order to thank the coaches for their support throughout the season, I wanted to give them something, from the entire team. Which is why with the help of other older members, we were able to get kick boards and cards and have the entire team sign them in order to thank them and give them something to remember this season by. 

Below are some pictures of SAISA swimming 2014: