As junior Maxx Vazirani lines up on the starting blocks as the first leg of the relay race, sophomore Chase Whitman stands behind him, mentally preparing himself to follow his teammate.
For the last five years, Whitman and Vazirani have been swimming together at Charles River Aquatics, where they have both developed into great swimmers and friends. The pair’s competitive nature and dedication to their craft is what makes them both such good athletes and teammates.
Chief operating officer of Charles River Aquatics and head coach Jon Castaldo said that the two have an extremely similar approach to swimming, and they understand what it takes to get better and succeed.
“They definitely really care about the little things they can do to get ahead, what makes them a little bit faster or their stroke a little bit stronger,” Castaldo said.
According to Castaldo, swimming is an inherently repetitive activity. Castaldo said that the most important thing to keep athletes like Vazirani and Whitman motivated is to make sure they trust the process.
“I think it’s more instilling faith in the process,” Castaldo said. “For them, the more they understand how it works, understanding the things that you learn from it and how you can implement it when it matters, those are the things that really matter.”
Swimming at such a high level is tough, and Vazirani said having a friend by your side is extremely valuable. Vazirani said the two push each other to get better and are always making sure that they’re focused and ready to work.
“When one of us shows up, and we had a bad day at school or whatever, we’re there for each other,” Vazirani said. “Because we’re not just competitors, we’re also friends.”
This much swimming requires an extremely high level of commitment. Castaldo said committing so much time to being great in the pool means accepting that you will have to make sacrifices.
“At the end of the day, the social aspect’s tough because to be really good, you have to sacrifice things,” Castaldo said. “You have to work, and if you’re hanging out around your practices, that’s significantly harder to do.”
Vazirani said that in order to stay on top of everything at school, it is really important to make the most of the limited time he has.
“You just got to get down time management in order to be successful academically,” Vazirani said. “When you get home from practice, just immediately get down to your work and not doom scroll or watch TV because that will lead to your grades slipping.”
For Whitman, he said that his key to success in swimming is your mindset. Whitman said that to be great in the pool, you need the mental strength to keep pushing.
“It’s all about how strong your mind is,” Whitman said. “Swimming is 30 percent physical, 70 percent mental. As long as you can tell yourself you can keep going, you’re gonna keep going.”
Whitman said swimming has also taught him that oftentimes the journey is more important than the destination.
“After having a really good time, of course, it’s really rewarding,” Whitman said. “But honestly, the bigger reward is showing up every day, and working towards that goal, that’s the bigger reward for me, instead of the actual final outcome.”
