Wright powers through trauma to return to form in pool
You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone has been a line repeated thousands of times by those with broken hearts. It doesn’t make it any less true.
“It was definitely a heartbreaking experience: My career was on the line, I got really behind in school, and it was one of those moments where I was at my lowest low,” said Christian Wright.
The Sussex Academy junior has a very good chance of becoming a Division I swimmer and has already drawn interest from quite a few schools. However, before arguably his most important season for recruiting purposes, Wright suffered an injury that was severely detrimental to an athlete in his sport.
“In the beginning of October, I had my first lung collapse – it's called a pneumothorax – and when my lung collapsed, basically what happened was the air in the lung went out and pushed down the lung in the chest wall,” Wright said.
After he received medical clearance, the air once again turned against his insides.
“The second time it happened, I had to get surgery, because it would keep reoccurring if I didn't do anything about it. So at the end of October, I got the surgery done,” Wright said.
For a kid who lives in the water, starting his day in Sussex Academy’s pool and ending it at the Sussex Family YMCA pool, it was devastating. Wright thought he would never swim again.
“It's been a process. I definitely have my ups and downs, but I take it as a little bump in the road,” Wright said. “At this point now, I need to learn to take it easy every once in a while.”
Wright improved by leaps and bounds his sophomore year, and he was hoping to continue that growth.
“I had a very outstanding year for me in my 10th-grade year, and I just think now I have to ... be back on the grind and try my best to catch back up after my surgery,” Wright said. “After my surgery, if you told me I would be swimming in a month, I would never believe you.
“I think it was definitely a learning experience,” he continued. “When my lung collapsed the first time, I went and rushed it right away, and I wasn't ready – I'm a sprinter, and it's like a marathon to get back to sprinting. I had no consideration of my body or anything and I rushed it; I think that's also a main reason why it happened again, and it was my body and a sign of knowing like, ‘Hey, you need to take it easy every once in a while.’”
Tackling his rehab almost as quickly as he swims a lap, Wright was able to help his team win the medley and freestyle 200 relays in the Seahawks’ first meet of the season Dec. 6 against Sussex Tech.
“I'm very grateful to be back in the water, because that's like my second home,” Wright said.
He won his first 50 freestyle of the season in the following meet against Dover and hasn’t lost in the event since, with victories in the tri-meet against Polytech and Seaford, and the dual meet against Indian River.
“I had never been out of the pool so long, and I think, honestly, a month being out of the pool definitely gave me a break and allowed me to take it easy,” Wright said. “I took a deep breath – an actual good, deep breath – about life and started getting my studies up and whatnot, and I think it ended up being a good mental experience overall.”
