Chloe Sutton: Eyes on the Prize--But Enjoying the Race
By Chloe Sutton As told to Elisabeth Deffner
I started swimming when I was about 7. We were living in Colorado Springs. (My dad is in the military, so we moved about every two years. I was born on the central coast of California, but I’ve lived in Alabama, Nebraska, Colorado, Virgina—I’ve moved about 11 times.)
My best friend wanted to try out for the swim team, but she was scared to do it all alone—so I did it with her. That was the start of everything!
Even though I grew up on the central coast, my mom never let me in the ocean past my knees. There are things you can’t control in the ocean—riptides, sharks. She wanted me to be safe. But when I made it on the National Swim Team I was invited to this camp in Florida. The first time we went to the beach, I was the first one in the water. They were still going over the safety rules, and I was already in, with my feet up in the air!
I swam a 5K, an open water race, and came in second. That qualified me for the national team. I never knew I could get second!
Then someone said, “Why don’t you try a 10K?” I was like, wow, that’s a far race—that’s farther than I swim in practice! But I did it. When I called my mom after, she said, “Are you OK? Did you finish?”
I said, “I won!”
That qualified me for the Pan Pacific Games, where I won my first-ever international gold.
I love swimming. I love the water. Some people dread going to practice, but I get in such a better mood after practice! And I love swimming out in the open water. There are swells, there are waves. It’s so much fun!
I remember when we were out practicing for the World Championships in Australia, getting a feel for the course and the water, I started seeing bright-orange starfish on the bottom. I started diving down to play with them, and the coaches thought we were in trouble. They all went out in a boat to try to help us, and then I popped up from under the water and said, “Look—starfish!”
But the race was different. There had been some offshore storms, and there were blue blubber jellyfish everywhere. Then one of my teammates, who knew you can’t swim without goggles in jellies, tore my goggles off. She was hoping that I couldn’t finish the race, but I had somebody get me more goggles. It took a while. I finished the race by myself—with all those jellyfish. I was stung all over my body.
That’s when I realized open water’s about being able to stand up for yourself. There are no lane lines out there; people will throw an elbow at you, scratch you with their nails. Some days it’s choppy; some days people throw you to the back of the pack, and swim right over you.
My dream has always been the Olympics, and I always figured 2008 was my year. The race I swam that qualified me for the Olympics was the exact same course as in the Olympics. The time I got in my test event would’ve won the Olympics. But we were there for three weeks before my event, and I ended up sick. I just had no energy for my race. I did great for the first lap—I lasted about 30 minutes. But it was a two-hour race.
It was really disappointing; any race you don’t do well is disappointing. But you either medal or you don’t. I didn’t medal, but I’m still an Olympian.
People say, “How did you do?” I say, “Not that great—but I was there.”
I was the first woman to make it to the Olympics in open water from America—this was the first year open water swimming was an event. They can’t take that away from me!
Now I’m looking ahead to the 2012 Olympics. I also got third in the Olympic trials in the 800-meter freestyle in the pool, so now my goal is to make it to the 800-meter and the 10K open water—two different sports. I don’t think that’s really been done by any American before.
I definitely want to get an education, but I’m putting college off till 2013. While my body is able to do this, and I have the opportunity to do something amazing in swimming, I need to do this!
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