A shoal of swimmers

My kids are off school all week, it being carnival week or Krokusvacantie, as Flemish schools put it so poetically. Most school children and their parents (those who don't work anyway) are enjoying lie-ins and late breakfasts. Most. Not my son, and by extension, not me.

My son is now in the junior competition team. This means he has to swim twice a day - 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon - the entire week he's off school, Saturday and Sunday included. Yesterday he swam a total of 10 kilometrers. Good grief. Today he gets to do it all again, and possibly more. Poor thing. He comes home to devour alarming quantities of food and sleep like a drunken bear. Guess who gets to ferry him there and back, and launder an endless parade of chorine-soaked towels besides?

It was early in the morning when I took this. I am not a morning person. I was awake enough to drive my boy to the pool safely, but not awake enough to know what I did to my camera settings. This is part of the competition team warming up. The blurs of swimmers' bodies are pretty much how things look like to me before I'm fully conscious anyway. The figures in black standing by the pool are the trainers. That walking blur is Kristof, the head trainer, also known as He Who Must Be Obeyed. He is Very Strict but also extremely funny and inspiring. A number of his swimmers have made it to the Olympics. Lateness is not tolerated (you get to do a painful amount of pushups or situps if you're even a few minutes late). No one is allowed to be absent without a medical certificate. Junk food and fizzy drinks are verboten, and vegetables and fruit are obligatory (he checks). Don't even dream of smoking or drinking. Politeness to everyone at all times. Absolutely no bullying. Swimmers have to have good grades or they're not allowed to compete.

The kids absolutely adore him.


Backblip: meet Angela.