The 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials had the Penn community buzzing with excitement as senior swimmer Matt Fallon qualified for the Paris games.
Credit: Chase SuttonFrom a non-diehard swim fan perspective, it felt like I shouldn’t have been there. I didn’t know how the roster caps worked, and I couldn’t name most of the people on last year’s Olympic team besides Katie Ledecky.
Going into it, I even had some trepidation about if I would even enjoy myself. Yes, I knew that going to the United States Olympic Trials is such a cool and privileged experience. But I had never really been a swim fan. I cheer on Team USA at the Olympics, but that’s basically everyone during an Olympics year like this one. I was raised on the all-American traditional sports like football and basketball. Sports like swimming are out of my comfort zone.
Like I’ve said, I knew next to nothing about swim going into the Trials, and something in particular that I didn’t know is just how large the swim community is. Both preliminary and finals sessions were packed with well over 10,000 fans; the finals session on June 19 even had 22,205 fans in attendance. Lucas Oil Stadium was flooded with people in every corner inching to buy Team USA merch and get a good view of the pool.
And with that many fans, the environment was electric. On the June 18 finals session, Regan Smith broke the world record in the 100-meter backstroke. I’ll never forget the roar of the crowd when the Jumbotron revealed she was ahead of world record pace. The whole stadium got up on its feet, all filled with the same hope that she’d do it. And then a day later, I found myself yelling “Come on!” at the top of my lungs as I watched Penn’s Matt Fallon swim into first place and break the American record in the 200-meter breaststroke. Before then, I hadn’t even met the guy.
I’ve spent the past few days trying to condense that feeling into a single word, but I can’t.
I experienced the same feeling my sophomore year when I traveled to Princeton for Penn football’s season finale. The hopes of an Ivy League title were gone by halftime, but the satisfaction and exhilaration of watching Trey Flowers march in for that touchdown to pry the title away from Princeton is burned into my memory. A year later, my friends and I were jumping in the bleachers of the Palestra as our confidence grew that Penn men’s basketball would beat Villanova. I skipped my nursing ethics class to make it to that game (sorry, Dr. Perlman).
There’s something beautiful about seeing those moments live and in person. That moment where you realize you’re about to see something special. Because even though it wasn’t you out there on that field, you were still there. You were the one sitting with your stomach in knots. Or you were the one asking your friend for context about why everyone was so excited. And soon enough, that moment becomes a memory that stays with you far after the venue charges your bank account for the ticket.
There’s a magical value in watching live sports that is forgotten in a world of streaming and overpriced tickets. If you have the opportunity, go to that game or meet. Even if you are not that familiar with the sport, step outside of your comfort zone. Take the few minutes to understand the basics, whether via Google or a friend. You never know what could become your favorite sport to watch or if you’re about to go to a game you’ll remember for a lifetime.
There’s a reason why we are so drawn to the Olympics every four years, why we get so invested in certain sports once every four years. We long for the extraordinary, for the celebration and triumph, for a moment we will remember.
But you don’t need to wait every four years. You could find those great sports moments at every level, in every sport there is. You just need to go take the chance and see it live for yourself.
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