BEACHWOOD, Ohio (WJW) — You either make excuses or you make progress. That’s the motto one high school swimmer in Ohio is living by during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think people should use this as motivation to think outside of the box,” Beachwood High School junior Grady Bystrom said. “If they think they can’t practice their sport, I think you can find a way.”
Bystrom started swimming as a young boy and has been swimming competitively for 10 years. When the state shut down six weeks ago because of the coronavirus, he knew he had to keep training, so he checked Amazon and found himself a pool.
“The pool was $500, the craziest thing is that we looked back at it and now I think they are selling for $2,000,” he said.
The pool is 16 feet long, 8 feet wide and 3 feet deep. Bystrom put the pool in his garage, which is now known as G-Dizzle Natatorium.
“They call me G-Dizzle and I don’t want to call it Grady’s Natatorium because that is boring so we call it the G-Dizzle Natatorium,” said Bystrom.
This natatorium is a little different than most. Since the pool isn’t very big, he had to get creative in making it more of a lap pool, rigging up a tether to keep him swimming in place.
“I was thinking of ways to keep the rope in there and I saw a car jack so we jacked up the car jack in the hole so it’s pressed up against the top and the bottom so it stays and it won’t come out and we tied the cord to it,” he said.
Bystrom uses the pool every day for 30 to 40 minutes. He’s a big believer that if it’s important you will find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.
