Lucky Pink Bathing Suit by: Alex Schultheis

Alex Schutheis
Professor Bishop
January 23, 2005

Lucky Pink Suit

When a small 8-year-old girl walked up to the block to swim the 25-yard freestyle at the SCCSL Swim Championships she wore a neon, pink suit and a bright, yellow cap. As she leaped off the block and kicked furiously in the water she had no idea that she would enter the wall with a league record of 14.02 seconds.
That small 8-year-old girl was Lauren Irrgang. Irrgang is now the Naval Academy’s best female swimmer. She has broken numerous records in the water and is now preparing to attend the 2007 Olympic Trials. Lauren has changed a lot since that 8-year-old who set the league record in the 25-yard freestyle 13 years ago; however, the one thing that has not changed is her bathing suit.
At every competition Irrgang can be spotted amongst the other cap wearing swimmers as the girl in the tattered, pick bathing suit. The same suit that carried Irrgang through the water 13 years ago is the same suit that Irrgang wears to warm up in before a big race. She has bought dozens of other bathing suits since that race but still she wears that pink suit over her racing suit before every race.
“It is my good luck charm, it helped we win then and it is still helping today,” Irrgang said.
Before every big race Irrgang goes to the warm up pool where she pulls out her lucky neon, pink bathing suit and strategically puts it on over her normal racing suit. It takes her several minutes to put it on; there are so many holes and the suit is so fragile from all the chlorine that she must be very careful where she places her arms and legs. When the suit is finally on she enters the water, feet first, and swims a few laps to get herself warmed up before her big race.
After warming up Irrgang goes right to the racing pool and sits in the chair that is provided for her at the foot of her lane. She visualizes the race she is about to swim while wearing her lucky suit. She then begins the process of taking off the suit, making sure she doesn’t put another huge hole in it. Now Irrgang is ready to swim her competition.
When coaches and family members question why she wears the threadbare suit she simply shrugs her shoulders at them. It’s her lucky suit, and she owes no reason to anyone. No one understands why this accomplished young women who holds swimming records in all four events at 15 different pools wears the pink tattered suit; however, it is not for us to understand it is only our job to watch as Irrgang sets yet another record in the same bathing suit that started it all 13 years ago.