Going for gold, but what if your child finishes as an “also ran”?

Penny pulls out ahead and wins the heat at a citywide meet

By Dad

We have three water babes on our hands since all are strong swimmers.

But after the aquatics division of New York Parks and Recreation Department picked Penny to be part of its elite USA Swim Team, we’ve joked about her getting to the Olympics.

Except that none of us is truly joking; we’re secretly hoping she has a shot.

So we face a dilemma.

Should we go all out with six-days-a-week training sessions – despite all the time and energy doing so would consume for both child and parent?

Or should we be “realistic” and consider the Olympics a long shot. If so, we would limit practice time so that the main focus for Penny can remain her education.

Each night’s training session eats up four hours when subway travel, changing times and warm-ups are added to the 90 minutes in the pool.

Since Penny has at least a couple of hours’ worth of homework each night, she must do a good portion of it on the subway.

If subway seats are not available, she must work late into the night after returning home, raising the risk of burnout.

Yet, not giving her every opportunity to maximize this wonderful chance to develop her talent could mean we’re squandering it.

Athletes who end up with gold medals invariably have stories of self-sacrifice, and how they’re glad they and their families made the effort.

But what about the many additional athletes who sacrificed an equal amount, but fell short of the end reward?

You don’t hear about them as they play catch-up in the career they would have chosen had they not detoured into athletics.

For now we’re making the commitment.

Ribbons won by all three hopeful swimming stars

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