PHOTOS BY HAM WALLACE
Last Tuesday, the Schlessman Pool, home of the Colorado College swim teams, hosted a very important event. The building was filled with a mob of people sporting swim caps and goggles. Swimmers were going in an endless cycle, one diving in as soon as the previous swimmer touched the wall.
It wasn’t a competition or tournament; the participants weren’t swimming for first place. They were swimming for Ted.
The Ted Mullin “Leave it in the Pool” Hour of Power Relay for Sarcoma Research is the main source of money for the Ted Mullin Fund. The Fund supports sarcoma research at the University of Chicago.
This is the eighth year of this event. It was started in 2006 in honor of Ted Mullin. He was a member of the men’s swim team at Carleton College when he died of sarcoma, a rare form of cancer of the connective tissues. The Carleton College swim team put on the first Hour of Power event in memory of their teammate and to raise funds for sarcoma research.
The Hour of Power has since grown into a national event with over 8,000 athletes from 160 teams in the United States and abroad taking part. The event is a solid hour of continuous relay swimming, using any stroke.
Each swimmer puts everything they can into each lap. “All out, every single time, because that’s the way Ted swam,” said Colorado College head coach Anne Goodman James.
Inside of the Schlessman building, a whiteboard was placed near the entrance. Across the top, written proudly in large letters was “Ted Mullin Hour of Power Relay”. Below that, it read “We swim today to honor those who are fighting cancer/who have lost the battle.” Beneath the two categories were dozens of names written in different colors by the participating swimmers.
The event accumulates flat donations. The swimmers are not sponsored by how many laps they swim. Over the past five years, the Hour of Power has raised over $265,000 for the Ted Mullin Fund. It is currently unknown how much money Colorado College raised during the event because donations are still coming in.
The money is not the only significance of the event. It is also a community-building experience. The event brought together swimmers from the men’s and women’s CC swim teams, the women’s Air Force swim team, and the Colorado Springs Swim Team – Masters Team.
At Colorado College and across the nation, swimmers came together in tribute to those affected by cancer. Through their efforts in the pool, the swimmers honored the strength of those who have fought or are fighting cancer.
Hannah Westerman, Staff Writer