Book Review No 19: Treading Water by Tracy Wickham

As a child I can remember Tracy's glorious swansong at the Brisbane Commonwealth Games, when she won two individual gold medals and one silver and being disappointed that she would no longer be swimming for Australia. Although to my young self 19 did seem a reasonable age to retire. Of course today, most professional athletes are just getting started at that age and are looking towards up to ten more years in their sport. However after reading this book and realising just what Tracy packed into her teenage years and the amazing impact she had on the swimming world, maybe she just started a lot earlier than kids today do.

As a big fan of the sport of swimming, I found this book really interesting right from the start. Tracy's raw talent as a swimmer shone through from a young age - although she does have an impressive pedigree, with several ancesters who were also heavily involved in the sport. In contrast to the more organised and widespread availability of swim schools and coaching available today, Tracey grew up in a Brisbane where for most kids the pool was just somewhere you went to muck around on the weekends or holidays. Fortunately her talent was spotted at a young age and she was given the opportunity to train and compete at an elite level. During her career she held world records in several freestyle events, some of which remained some of the longest standing in swimming. She went to the 1976 Olympics at the very tender age of 13, but missed the 1980 Moscow games due to the Western Boycott.

It's almost hard to remember a time (not so long ago) when swimming was very much an amateur sport. There was no such thing as sponsorship or incentive payments for winning a gold medal. In fact swimmers had to pay their own pool admission fee each time they went to train. Tracy lived through this era and it was a big factor in her decision to retire at a young age. It was just too hard to train and compete at an elite level for any length of time.

Once out of the pool, Tracy floundered a little in her efforts to "find" herself outside the world of swimming. Her initially happy marriage crumbled, resulting in a nasty custody dispute, she had some trying financial times and most tragically her beloved daughter Hannah developed cancer and died still in her teens. You cannot help but be affected by the incredible grief that she suffered as a result.

Treading Water is well written and very interesting to read. Tracey gives many insights into the way Australian swimming has changed over the past couple of decades, as well as the way officialdom has continued to make it difficult for swimmers to have the right mix of discipline and freedom as they pursue their sport. It was a little shocking to hear just how little supervision teenagers had during overseas trips in the 1970s.

The overall message of this book, is that Tracy Wickham is a survivor. She is a woman who has always had to work hard to achieve what she wanted and who continues to pick herself up, dust herself off and move forward no matter what setbacks she encounters.