ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SWIMMING

Marie Sadler part 3

This was written for me by a swimming coach and a very good friend of ours Juicy Lucy from the UK swimclub.

Marie Sadler – part 3

Looking back I can realise it took enormous nerve to do such a thing, to put yourself up as the centre of ridicule. Marie explained that evening, that the sports psychologist suggested she should do it. He told her that people would look at you in amazement, but also they would question whether they themselves were doing things right by being in the hot sun all day, just before a major competition. The next day at the pool I saw about a dozen swimmers holding scarves or towels above their heads as they walked round the pool. They drew the line at making a metal frame fixed to their shoulders, but it was clear that this mad Englishwoman had influenced them.

Marie’s second day at the pool was equally bizarre. She positioned herself in the balcony at the front, near to the starter. The ridiculous sun shade was again positioned above her head and she was watched by everyone as she timed the start of the men’s 50m freestyle. Stopwatch in left hand and notepad on her lap. The 50m events on all strokes at masters meets are always well attended. There were 120 heats in the mens 50 free. Marie timed every one. Not the swims, but the period between the starter saying , “Take your marks” and firing his pistol.

She was so excited when I joined her mid-way through this exercise. She pointed out to me that the time between ‘marks’ and firing his gun was exactly 1.9 seconds. She noted that 18 starts out of every 20 were timed at 1.9 seconds. She was getting really excited and told me that knowing this would give her a great advantage in the 50 fly, which was to be her first event. She turned around to tell the people sitting behind her that she was heading back to the hotel to practice her starts! This was yet another occasion when the other swimmers were talking about her. You may think these is the actions of a nutter, and you are probably right, but read on…

I was sure that during the evening, over a drink or two, masters swimmers all around us would be talking about her. We were eating, that evening, at one of the restaurants in the town and I could see that people were talking about Marie. Again, at the big masters meets abroad, the restaurants are full of swimmers, and everyone is friendly. (This is probably the best part of masters swimming!). Marie pointed out to me an ex-Olympic swimmer. It was a German woman named Barbara Gellrich. She told me that this German was her main opponent and that they had both entered the 50 and 100m fly. Having seen Marie become the focus of everyone’s attention I was terrified at what she would do in the restaurant. Actually, she behaved herself, much to my relief.

Marie won the 50m fly. She swam in the 40-44 years age group and her time was a new world record and faster than all women in all age groups from 25 years upwards.