GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Daniel Clyde heard it, but he couldn’t believe it.
“I think a little bit disbelieve,” the Ann Arbor resident recalls. “I think everything accelerated so quickly with how our nation was responding to this pandemic.
Part of the response was shutting down collegiate sports through the end of spring. That meant no more swimming for the soon to be Hope Graduate and no chance of experiencing a lifelong dream.
“I think that was my career goal coming in as a freshman was to get a relay team to nationals,” Clyde explains
The event was supposed take place in Greensboro, North Carolina last weekend. But instead of dwelling on what could have been, the 22 year old has been moving forward.
“It did help in a lot of ways in that I’ve dealt with a lot of disappointment,” Clyde said.
And not to mention a ton of setbacks. To say that Clyde has been injury prone would be an understatement.
“I’ll try but I’m going to forget,” he says with a laugh. “I popped both my lungs at least three times that we know of. One of them, I had surgery on last spring, to sort of glue it in place.
He continues: “I dislocated my elbow, this past fall, a full dislocation. I’ve broken that same elbow. Needed surgery to deconstruct it before. I’ve broken my fingers multiple times, just finishing on the wall, very funny. I broke my neck one time. I’ve had probably four concussions that I think I remember.
Anything else?
“I’ve had strep throat probably close to 50 times. “
There’s more injuries that he can count. Each one could have shut his athletic career down for good yet each time, he came back stronger than ever.
“I had always been able to continue pushing through just at dealing with the pain myself or knowing that I had the opportunity to come back.”
Now however, there is no going back. But while Clyde is leaving the sport in less than ideal circumstances, he knows he still has a lot to be proud of.
“This is a situation I couldn’t have done anything about,” Clyde said. “So, given everything that’s happened. I don’t regret really anything.”
There’s no doubt it was a tough break but make no mistake, it did not break Daniel Clyde.
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