Swimming Blogs - Trent Staley

For as long as I can remember I have had a lot of super random and probably crazy ideas about swimming bumping around inside my skull. The randomness/craziness I can either blame or thank my parents for because of the freethinking they taught my sisters and me to do while home schooling (material for later, no doubt). Since retiring from swimming, though, I have found that the shower is the place where I have the most clarity and can best focus/harness my thoughts. Not to psychoanalyze why but there is probably something to the water moving across my body, getting my head right and all the time I spent in a pool.

Anyway, I was just in the shower and a bunch of stuff clicked! Before I spit it out though, I need to give some background.

In 2001, I went home for the summer following my freshman year at SC to swim with my club team. When I got back to Portland, my club coach, Paul Bergen, informed me that he planned to take the team to the Canadian Nationals instead of going to the US version as I had expected. It was pretty tough to swallow as a sophomore-to-be, who thinks he has it all figured out… but what started as a disappointment turned out pretty well as it was a really fun team trip, we all swam fast and without a doubt made lasting memories we probably wouldn’t have in Clovis (not that there is anything wrong with it). As for me, I managed to snatch a Canadian National Championship in the 2back when no one was looking, an accomplishment that I take great pride in and hope finds its’ way to the top of my tombstone. Three years later, I ended up in the right place at the right time again and found myself with a US Title to go with the Canadian and this got me to thinking and joking with my friends… What if I was to traveled to all the NATO nations and seeking to win National Championships in each? How great would that be? I have got to think that nothing has ever been done like that in our sport and really even if it has, who cares? It would still make interesting/egotistical dinner conversation.

So, fast-forward to today and there I was in the shower, just moments ago, pondering the best strategy for taking over the world in the classic board game RISK and I recalled my old NATO/swimming joke... brilliantly my next thought was of course to put a Risk style twist on swimming and throw down the challenge of holding titles in multiple countries in the same year... so as to earn points and eventually crown a global ruler. I then quickly realized that I wasn’t original in the slightest and that Tennis has been doing this very thing at least since Don Budge won all 4 majors, aka the Grand Slam (not to be confused with the breakfast featuring 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 strips of bacon and 2 sausage links) in 1938. Sure there are meet series already in existence like the Mare Nostrum, FINA/Arena World Cup and USA Swimming Grand Prix Series which are fantastic competitions and that give out points for wins and eventually result in a champion but I’m thinking even more tennis style…

Suspend reality for a second and let’s say every meet is open to all competitors from all nations, wouldn’t it be captivating to watch Phelps and Cavic battle it out in the 1fly at the European Championships, the Australian Championships, the US Nationals and the World Championships in the same sort of way we have gotten to see Nadal and Federer do so in tennis at the Australian Open, French Open Wimbeldon and US Open? We could even set it up so that one meet was always raced short course, another was always outdoors and another was at altitude or something… so that arguably it would take different strengths to win at each meet just as in tennis with hard courts, clay and grass.

I know it sounds stupid, I get it, but come on… we all know there are more than a few Napoleons running around our pool decks itching for the chance for something just like this.