Letter to the editor: Swimmers dedicated to safe practice, competition

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt of a letter sent to Gov. Tom Wolf and Robert Lombardi, director of the PIAA, before the PIAA’s Aug. 21 decision to move ahead with fall sports:

Dear Gov. Wolf and Director Lombardi,

We are athlete representatives of Allegheny Mountain Swimming and Middle Atlantic Swimming, two of the 59 USA Swimming local swim committees. Allegheny Mountain Swimming and Middle Atlantic Swimming consist of approximately 15,000 athletes, covering the entire state of Pennsylvania.

The individual club teams within Allegheny Mountain and Middle Atlantic have trained following all of Pennsylvania’s covid-19 guidelines over the past three months and have been able to safely conduct practice by reducing practice sizes, monitoring the amount of swimmers in each lane, and maintaining six feet of distance at all times. Our success in implementing these practice guidelines shows our dedication to making sacrifices to stay in the water.

Athletes who are serious about the sport use practice and training as a way to mentally stabilize their lives. In such a crazy time, being able to practice and compete is vital to an athlete’s well-being. Taking away swimming would be devastating to the health and routine of the swimmers of Pennsylvania.

With all the hard work that our athletes put into this sport, it is absolutely vital that you consider the adverse effects on taking away such a safe sport from such a motivated group of young athletes. We respectfully ask the governor to reconsider his recommendation to postpone all youth sports until 2021.

Topher Bishop, Meredith Reese, Isabella Donato, Ria Dietz, Sofia Pejcic and Christina Cappola