Utah Summer Games ~ June 18, 2011

Saturday we had breakfast, packed, and then checked out of our hotel at 11:00. We stopped and got free frozen yogurt (mid-morning snack) with a coupon that was in the “athlete bag” that Ryan received at check-in. Then Ryan’s warm-ups started at noon. This is how Ryan prepares for his events.



As I’ve mentioned before, in Ryan’s swimming experiences, I try to focus on Ryan beating his own times more than winning. We’ve also talked about the friendships he is making through swimming. Through these Summer Games, Ryan really learned how to be a good sport. His new friend, Payson, easily won the gold in most of the events that they swam. In fact, in several events, there were two heats, with Ryan being in the first heat (due to the fact that he had no times yet in the events), and Payson was in the second heat. Even though they were competing against each other, Ryan stood either at the side of the pool or at the bulkhead and cheered for Payson. I was so proud of him for his willingness to cheer for the person that he knew would beat him! In the events where they did swim in the same heat, they always enjoyed chatting with each other at the start blocks.




Here are Ryan’s events and results for Saturday, with asterisks indicating his own best time:

50 Butterfly – 50.34 – 6th place
200 Freestyle – 1:32.76* - 9th place
100 Breaststroke – 2:21.10* - 5th place
400 Freestyle – Unfortunately, we didn’t see Ryan’s exact time. It was in the 8 minute range, and he came in 4th place. But he has never done this event before, so it was his own best time!*

The 400 events consist of eight laps. There are counters that a coach or parent can hold at the bulkhead so the swimmer doesn’t have to keep count during the longer events – they can just focus on the swimming. I held Ryan’s counter, and the girls and coaches from the Moab team stood behind me. As Ryan approached, we’d cheer for him. He started giving us a thumbs-up as he made his turn. I’m thinking it may have slowed him down a bit, but he sure made the girls giggle. Priorities, I guess. :)





The Moab coaches stood with me during most of Ryan’s events, talking with me about Ryan’s form, speed, and overall performance. They were so complimentary! In fact, one of the coaches kept saying, “Oh! What a BEAUTIFUL butterfly!” Even though Ryan wasn’t the fastest, they kept complimenting his form. Interestingly, during his 400 IM, the one who kept making comments about his BEAUTIFUL form, gasped all of a sudden. She said, “He’s ELEVEN?!?!” Every other swimmer in that event was 12. She said she was JUST SURE that he would continue to get even better as he grew older and his body continued to mature. It was fun to hear their opinions, especially since this was our very first event without our own coach.

Here are a few pictures from the day. In the first picture (butterfly), notice the muscle definition on the back of my little 11-year-old!







Since Ryan didn’t medal in any events on Saturday, we hit the road as soon as his events ended in the late afternoon. We decided to stop at the Cedar City welcome sign to take a couple of pictures of our medalist.