Pandemic Restrictions Sent Cal Swimmer Isabel Ivey on 'Personal Journey'

Isabel Ivey had never gone more than a week without swimming before the pandemic hit. Then suddenly, without warning, she had to go two months without the activity that formed much of her identity.

"It's the longest I've ever gone without swimming," said Ivey, one of the elite members of Cal's women's swimming team.

She got itchy.

She undestood there were more important things than swimming that necessitated the restrictions. She even has a great-grandmother who is stricken with the COVID-19 virus.

That did not make her situation easier to handle at first. But she ultimately turned it into a life lesson, what Ivey called "a personal journey."

"It was really hard not having that piece of my life with me every day and trying to find other ways not just to stay active but also stay motivated," she said. "It really allowed me to find out more about myself and more about who I am besides a swimmer. That's so much of my identity, and I was able to find other things I like to do."

Nonetheless she was excited this week when she and her teammates were able to get back in the water at Cal for the first time and get back to practice. There were hoops to jump through, including a sequester and COVID-19 testing, but she can now get down to preparing for the 2021 NCAA Championships.

"I'm excited to feel the pain of hard practices again," she said.

Of course, Ivey does not know whether there will be a 2021 NCAA swimming championship, scheduled for Greensboro, N.C., March 17-20.

She and her Cal teammates were set to travel to Athens, Ga., for the 2020 NCAA Championships, scheduled to start on March 18. Ivey had won the 100 backstroke in the Pac-12 Championships and was focusing on the national championshios when it was canceled.

"I was really going to put all my effort into NC's," she said.

She decided to return home to Florida when the NCAA Championships were canceled, planning to stay there just a couple days before turning her attention to the Olympi Trials. But then the Olympics were postponed until 2021, and travel restrictions were applied.

"I was only planning to be home for three days, and it turned out to be six months," Ivey said.

But that initiated Ivey's personal jouney, which included some surfing and teaching her 3-year-old cousin how to swim.

"Kind of like made me think of that little girl, of me, who used to love swimming, and made me want to get back here as soon as possible," she said.

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