Vetter hoping for a return to the pool soon

Commentator/Courier File Photo AMAC swimmer Delrae Vetter

By Justin Seward

Commentator/Courier

Alberta Marlin Aquatic Club member Delrae Vetter has not swam a competitive lap at the Family Leisure Centre since before the November shutdown and she voiced her frustration over not being in the pool for quite some time.
“It’s super frustrating,” said the young Redcliff swimmer.
“I mean getting told over and over again that we have a chance to swim and we’re going to open, and then we come to that day, they are(the provincial government) like ‘Yeah, no you’re not going back swimming yet.’ (It) gets really frustrating after a while and now we’ve been out for about three months and it wasn’t as long as the last shutdown in 2020— it’s still I almost say worse—because we keep getting false hope from the government all the time now.”
There were no swim meets in the brief time that clubs were in the pool because of the amount of swimmers, and instead formed cohorts within their own clubs.
“We were stuck within our group—so from there we had time trial little swims where we picked a couple of events that we wanted to do and we got to race them,” said Vetter.
“But other than that, there was really no competition in there, it was more just seeing where we were at each event.”
Vetter says she liked the cohorts.
“I’m a rule follower,” she said.
“I follow anything the government tells me to do around COVID. When the Club told us you can’t do this, you have to stay within our group, no mixing,I followed it right away. I found it really nice because I hold myself accountable and know that OK I haven’t been around these people; I’ve only been around my group. So it made me feel a lot better.”
With the shutdowns, there have been moments where she wanted to quit swimming.
“I’ve put so much effort in to keeping my body in shape,” she said.
“Running every night, eating properly and then when I think that I am going to be able swim, I’m not able to. For me, I was let down a lot, and that lead to me to be like what’s the point anymore. It’s not like I’m going to be able to swim anytime soon— so why do I even bother doing any of this.”
Despite not being able to go to trials this year, Vetter will look forward to attending nationals, which is still going for the time being in June.
“We all want to get back so badly,” she said.
“I miss all of them (teammates) so much. I can’t even see any of them because school is (in) cohorts.”
Marlin coach Jordan Harper has hosted Zoom workouts for the swimmers, which Vetter cited as being, “Helpful, but it’s different seeing your friend in person than over a screen.”