Starting at a young age… Dreams delayed
Erik started swimming at a very young age around 2 years old. “I could swim about 25 yards; I could swim to the other side of the pool. At the time I was pretty young to be swimming that far. When I learned to swim my parents said, ‘Wouldn’t it be crazy if you swam in the 2020 Olympic games.’ They always thought I would be a swimmer, but I hated swimming.” Little did Erik know that he would have his dreams delayed.
As a matter of fact, even though his dad persuaded him around the age of 6 to swim, Erik wanted nothing to do with it. “I can remember constantly missing events, I tried to play on my game boy like everybody else. I ended up wrestling for about 5, 6 years. I didn’t start swimming competitively till about 14 going on 15.”
Eventually losing got old for Erik and he was tired of getting 6th place all the time. “I told my dad I want to win and from that point on it was pretty much game over from there as soon as I joined the year-round swim team I was hooked.”
Swimming for another country dreams delayed
When I asked what team, he swam for he said, “I swam for Puerto Rico for about 2 and a half years. I grew up swimming for the United States, I went to the junior pan pac for the U.S. in 2012 and did the trial qualifier as well.”
He continued, “I switched to Puerto Rico around 2014, I competed for Pan American games the Summer of 2015. Basically, I was supposed to go to World’s, they didn’t explain to me much what happened. They just said, ‘Oh we’re having trouble with FINA so we’re not going to send you. We’re just trying to figure out some stuff with FINA.”
Unfortunately, the events of that day would spiral into something worse. In 2016 Erik had his credentials revoked from the Olympic games. However, Erik kept a positive attitude about it and said he wouldn’t have traded any of it.
Lottery winner or Olympian? Dreams delayed
“It was amazing to be able to have a country behind you, it’s much different than swimming for the U.S., you had a whole Island behind you cheering you on.”
Being an Olympic swimmer is not easy Erik simply put it this way, “You have a better chance of winning the lottery over and over than to be an Olympic swimmer.”
During the interview there was a section where Erik became very emotional, it made me ask the question, why? “Swimming has been a lot to me, it’s been a lot of bad things to me and it’s also been a lot of great things to me. Most people in the swimming world don’t know my story, I’m not your typical swimmer. I’ve sold drugs, I’ve done copious amounts of drugs, I’ve been addicted at times.”
Trying times dreams delayed
Erik got more personal, “I have two children, I’m a single father, I’ve been divorced. I’ve been estranged from family, I’ve lived on my own, I’ve been borderline homeless, I lost everything. I’ve had guns pointed at my head I’ve been in houses I probably shouldn’t have come out of. The things I’ve been through most people at my level have not. The one thing that’s always been there is swimming. Never at any time in all this madness did I ever think I would stop swimming.”
Even as a swimmer Erik has his own business helping other swimmers. Also, when asked about his platform and glorifying God he says, “I started doing that in my day to day life, for me, there is no what would you do when you hit this platform. If God chooses to put me on a bigger platform or not nothing changes. I am who I am, you don’t come around and not get some Jesus on you.”
When hypocrisy hurts our view
Growing up Erik’s father was a Christian but there wasn’t much of a change in him so it didn’t mean much to him. That was later in Erik’s life. However, knowing about the Christian faith helped Erik know that when he came to a low point in his life, he needed God. “When I was at Indian River State College where I met the mother of my children, I got to this low place, the one thing I did know was that I needed God.”
Erik makes a really good point that there is no “perfect repentance.” He went on to talk more about this, “There is no find Jesus, you are radically reformed! It didn’t happen to a single apostle; it didn’t happen to any of his disciples. We have to realize that it’s this constant walk, this constant reformation.”
All sin is sin dreams delayed
All too often Christians tend to judge other Christians based on their sin when in reality all sin is the same. “When you look at somebody and say I don’t know about that, you’re basically slapping Jesus in the face. Because he died for your sins and when you hate your brother, you are no different than the murderer who actually killed someone. When you lust after a woman, you’re no different than the guy who actually committed adultery.”
It’s no secret the Corona Virus has affected many people in life and in sports. I asked Erik about this and he simply replied, “Having more time to train is always good. I would never be upset if I was given more time to train.”
Similar scenario
Erik’s been in this situation before in the 2016 Olympics he went on to explain what happened, “This isn’t my first time being in this position. In 2016 my credentials were revoked, due to no fault of my own the day before the Olympics were starting. I haven’t been shocked by the virus it doesn’t emotionally affect me. If anything, it has built my relationship with Christ. There is no negative in this for me at all. I’m not worried about any kind of way.”
When asked if he had anything else to say he said, “God doesn’t care about sports. He doesn’t care about how fast you swim, or how much money you make, how much weight you can lift etc. God cares about our relationship with him.”
The life we’ve been given
Erik continued, “We are here on earth if you’re lucky 80 to 90 years if you’re really lucky maybe 100. That is a blip in time when it comes to eternity and a lot of people myself included get stuck up on what’s happening here on earth. The reality is when you get to those gates and God judges you on your life, He’s not going to say, ‘You swam so fast come on in.’ He’s going to say let me take a look at your works, do I know you? If you care about money or having a successful business or being a great athlete? Or did you care about holiness and maximizing your time spent with me?”
God looks at the heart
When it comes down to it what we do does not define us Erik went onto say, “God doesn’t care how fast I swim. It’s really important as a Christian to understand that. Successful people do not look at one particular time and say this is everything this is right, that’s what unsuccessful people do. Because they’re wrapped up in a moment and not in the process.”
Erik finished up by saying, “When you’re training for the process and you love the process and ultimately you could go forever! But when you’re wrapped up in a moment and you’re only doing this for a moment and you’re training for a specific time, like you only do this for the Olympics, or that Championship in the end when that doesn’t come you get very depressed. And it’s very hard to keep moving because everything is indefinite.”
Last Erik said, “See now you’ve been given a lot more time for the process. That’s what real champions do. That’s what real successful people do. There’s times when you don’t do it right and I am guilty of that.”
So, what have we learned? That you are more than what you do. God doesn’t care about your accolades or what you’ve accomplished. He cares about your heart what you did for God’s glory. And yes we can do sports for God’s glory, but we have to careful of who we’re doing it for.
