The Life of Swimming

Photo by Diana Percy

Freshman Lauren McDougald snoozes her iPhone buzzing on her bedside table. She rolls straight into her bathroom, grabs her can of shaving cream and spreads it along her legs, arms, and back. It’s 4:30 a.m. and her pump-up playlist is blaring through her speakers as she prepares for the sectional swim meet at the University of Missouri the next day.

McDougald spends ten hours of her week at the pool, squeezing in homework whenever she can, and going to early morning practices.

This hard work has lead her to be ranked second best overall for 200-meter butterfly in her age category in the Missouri Valley District, and has landed her spot on the East varsity team— without attending tryouts. Her dedication to the pool makes her one stroke closer to qualifying for the 2024 Olympics.

McDougald made the Kansas City Blazers national team with a sectional time of 02:09:98 in the 200-meter butterfly. She’s 11 seconds off of the women’s current best time in the 200 fly for the olympics, according to olympic.org.

From swimming with the Lenexa Lazers recreational team at age eight to joining the Blazers national team at age 14, McDougald has spent 15 years of her life underwater. Yet, she had many other passions at a young age.

As a child, McDougald’s mom, Natalie Lynch, wanted her to try various sports, so she wasn’t committed to one at a young age. McDougald participated in dance, soccer, volleyball, basketball and lacrosse before she chose swimming.

“A neighborhood friend had told us that Lauren should try out for the summer league because she had always enjoyed going to the pool with friends for fun,” Lynch said. “The next thing we knew she was making the city championship meet at the end of the summer and I thought ‘Wow she really has something,’ By the end of the year we signed her up for a more competitive club.”

McDougald’s passion and dedication to swim is what allows her to succeed at the sport.

With the Blazers, she has two and a half hour practices every day, and some days she’ll have doubles, which means they practice twice a day from 4:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Every winter, spring and summer, McDougald travels with her national team of 28 high school girls and boys to compete in the Junior Nationals, Sectionals, and Division meets.

With such a busy swim schedule, McDougald’s Blazer schedule overlaps East’s—but she chooses to make it to all of East’s practice over the Blazer’s for the remainder of the school swim season. She will only swim with the Blazers during the morning practices she can attend.

Teammate and senior Izzy Smith swims with McDougald for the Blazers and will be swimming together for this upcoming varsity swim season.

“I got to know Lauren by carpooling to practices at the beginning of the year,” Smith said. “She is a very good swimmer, and shows a lot of potential in her swimming. The transition of her old group to this group is a big one and she’s handled it well.”

Everyday McDougald comes home from a long school day, takes a nap, tries to get all of her homework done, then it’s off to swim practice for the night. Whenever she has a meet out of state she always tries to stay on top of homework and tests, but McDougald’s schedule takes away her social time. She does all of this while looking forward to the Olympics.

“I really wanted to play volleyball, basketball, and lacrosse for East, but I didn’t have time because I practice 10 times a week.” McDougald said. “If I went to football games it was right after swim practice and I usually made it by the end of the 3rd quarter,”

All of McDougald’s hours devoted to swim shifts into her results at meets.

“I love the positive energy at meets, it gets me going. Knowing that there are people watching and cheering for me, it’s very motivating,” McDougald said.

McDougald will have a two week break after sectionals with the Blazers until it’s back to the pool. This will help her transition from club season into school season. She hopes East will help her to improve her times and enjoy making friends with her new teammates.

For now, McDougald is ready to use her razor to shave for her new team. She hopes to be shaving the night before the women’s 200 fly for the 2024 olympics, listening to a new and improved pump-up playlist.