Chlorine Versus Covid: How the boys swim team has been affected by COVID-19

As a new swim season kicks off, the boys swim team is reunited with the smell of chlorine wafting into their noses — but this year, it’s through a mask. 

Every sport has been altered, whether that be social distancing protocols, mask requirements or, in some cases, an entire season cancelation — the boys swim team is no exception.

The boys swim season began Nov. 16 and has been going on for less than two weeks now. For the 18 swimmers on varsity, like senior Graham Billingsley, the season has been offset in a variety of ways compared to last year.

“We only have practice from 4-6 each day, when we normally have it from 3-6,” Billingsley said. “We no longer have any invitational meets so only two or three teams can compete at each meet. Spectators also aren’t allowed to attend meets.”

The extra hour of practice taken away from swimmers this year has proved to be difficult to work around at times, Billingsley said.

“Losing the extra hour of practice, for me personally, has made getting back into shape for the season a much longer process,” Billingsley said. “To compensate, our coach has mainly been increasing the difficulty of our practices faster than in previous years to get us ready for our first meet.”

Besides practice time and swim meet attendance, other facets of practice have changed indefinitely for this season.

“Each day before practice, we all have to fill out [a] form before being able to go into the locker room to get ready,” Billingsley said. “The survey essentially asks if you have been exposed to the virus recently or if you have any symptoms currently just to make sure no one is coming to practice when they shouldn’t be.”

Swimmers must also wear a mask at all times until actually entering the pool. Once they are getting out of the pool, the mask is to immediately come back on to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.

According to an article from the University of Colorado Health, backed with evidence from the CDC, the COVID-19 virus cannot be spread through pool water due to disinfectants like chlorine killing the virus. However, the team still wants to be as cautious as possible.

The coaching staff has been working towards ways to reduce the fear of what happens out of the water, as the main worry is what spreads on the pool deck. Varsity swimmer and junior Dane Simonsen plans to swim in the first meet on Wednesday, Dec. 2, despite the many restrictions.

“Right now, it’s only 2-3 people allowed in each swimming lane at time,” said Simonson. “While those two or three swimmers are in the water, kids that are sitting on the benches are assigned to a seat in each row that is distanced away from the others on the bench.”

The combination of socially-distanced seats and required masks while out of the water reduces the chance of any kind of spread between teammates and has, so far, been effective at keeping COVID out of their swim season according to Simonsen.

“While the season hasn’t been going on for a while, we still haven’t had any issues with cases showing up in either the JV or varsity team,” said Simonsen. “Although it may be a little early to say, I really think that things will keep running smoothly as long as we all do our part to stay healthy as a team.”

The most noticeable change to JV swimmer and junior Henry Fountain, has to do with how many people are allowed to practice depending on the day.

“The change I have noticed the most is definitely the lesser amount of people at practice,” Fountain said. “This week we did A through L on Monday and Tuesday then M through Z on Wednesday and Thursday. It’s honestly nice because it isn’t so crammed together anymore.” 

So far, the boys swim season has been COVID-19 clean. As long as the swimmers listen to their coaches’ advice and follow social distancing rules, the team is hoping to see a season without many issues.