Everything Started In The Pool
Lessons Between the Lane Lines:
How Swimming Set My Trajectory
“Running changes lives.” You hear it all the time in endurance sports. And while I respect it, running is powerful and is my current sport, for me, it was swimming that set everything in motion.
I was the kid who did everything—tee ball, softball, ballet, gymnastics, soccer, track. But swimming was the one constant. The one place I kept showing up, season after season, making progress and having a blast with friends, without even realizing how much it was shaping me.
When Passion Became Commitment
It was during those high school years, it became a commitment. Double practices, early mornings, choosing the pool over everything else. I let go of other sports to focus fully on swimming. The only time I stepped away was during my sophomore slump, when my coach pushed me to run track. I didn’t see it then, but those three years gave me a foundation I would come back to later.
At age 16 my first job was lifeguarding and teaching the summer league team between morning and afternoon practice. Long days in the sun, the smell of chlorine and sunscreen. And, I still coach swimming now at age 53.
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The Scholarship That Changed Everything
My high school coach told me I could earn a scholarship and to choose the school that valued me enough to invest in me. After a few recruiting trips, I chose Eastern Michigan University. Full ride. A decision that would shape everything that came next.
After my freshman year, I found triathlon. It was easy to train twice a day and not get wet and what is most triathletes’ weakness, is my strength. I had just enough running experience. And I had parents who modeled the endurance lifestyle: marathons, triathlons, the whole process. What felt normal to me was actually preparing me for something bigger.
After college, I moved to Colorado with $8,000 in savings, scholarship money I saved. Swimming didn’t just shape my athletic career; it shaped my professional life. From teaching lessons to college swimmers as a GTA while earning a master’s in Exercise and Sport Science at Colorado State University, to working in health clubs, to building my own coaching business, it all traces back to the lane lines.
More Than Just A Sport
Swimming didn’t just make me faster. It gave me direction. Everything I’ve built started in the water.
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Wendy Mader has been immersed in endurance sport since her Division I swimming days at Eastern Michigan University and has raced triathlon since 1992. She prefers the training over the spotlight of race day. With a master’s degree in Wellness Management, where her research examined eating disorders among triathletes, she brings both lived experience and academic insight to the conversation around performance and health. Hee decades of experience navigating setbacks, she coaches athletes to chase growth, she believes longevity, not metrics, is the real measure of success. As founder of t2coaching, she guides ambitious athletes to execute, think long-term, and stay in the sport for life.
