There are many injuries in sports. Professionals get them and pee wee football players get them. Its quite a common occurrence. But, the idea of returning to the pool after back surgery, that's a completely different story. This is what swimmer, Garrick Givens, had to go through last season.
At the beginning of the 2007-2008 season, a tall kid came into school on crutches. Givens had scoliosis, a medical condition in which a person's spine is curved from side to side, and may also be rotated. His spine was curved at a 65 degree angle. To fix this, it required major and intensive surgery.
"I was out for four months," said Givens. "And I was on bed rest for one."
Givens went through some very tough times in order to get back in the pool this season.
"It's hard to believe that he is back in the pool and swimming so well," said head coach Michael Harfoot. "It's impressive to see since he is coming off such major surgery."
This year, Givens is back and has swam in every meet. Even though he is not yet back at 100%, he is still swimming his heart out.
"All my muscles were weakened, so it has slowed me down a little bit," said Givens. "However, at the West Bloomfield Invitational, I dropped four seconds of my 200 freestyle time, and even though it was 10 seconds slower than my personal best, it was my best time since the surgery."
The team has a meet tomorrow night against West Bloomfield High School.
No comments:
Post a Comment