… 2021 an unforgettable year for Andrew Fowler

SOMETIMES, as sports fans, we want our athletes to win medals at almost every championship, particularly at the Olympics.
However, the story of Olympic swimmer Andrew Fowler should teach us that for some athletes, qualifying for these major events is an accomplishment in itself.

Fowler finished fourth in Heat One of the Men’s 100m Freestyle at the 32nd Olympiad, in a time of 55.23 seconds, which wasn’t enough to see him advance to the next round. He had the best entry time of 54.10s in the Heat.
“I was just happy to be there; to compete and represent my country. I had a tough time leading up to the games,” Fowler had told Chronicle Sport after his race.

Fowler endured a lot during his rise in the sports; from being racially abused while on scholarship, being told that he’s black and can’t train with the others overseas, to even right here in Guyana, where forces involved in swimming don’t want him to represent Guyana because he doesn’t fit into the ‘status quo’ of the sport.

Competing at the Olympic Games is truly an amazing accomplishment for any athlete, but for swimmer Andrew Fowler, representing Guyana at the 32nd Olympiad in Tokyo, was redemption for all the adversities he had to endure over the years and even leading up to the games.

Fowler’s story is not your typical “from nothing to something” tale, but when you understand where he came from, how he started swimming and the things he had to overcome, you’ll understand why, despite finishing fourth, swimming way below is personal-best and not advancing in Japan, the 25-year-old is happy.

Like most kids growing up in the ‘country’, swimming in the canals and creeks aka the blacka in Farm Village, East Bank Essequibo, was a staple in his everyday life.

Fowler loves sports, but wasn’t good enough to make it to the National Schools Championships in anything he tried. So, in 2012, inspired by the Olympic Games in London, Fowler decided to give swimming a try.

He was 16. He competed two years at ‘Nationals’ for Uitvlugt Secondary and then Leonora Secondary.
In 2012, it was the first time Fowler had seen a swimming pool in his life, much less to swim in one.

He stole his sister’s ‘tights’ to compete at the National Schools swimming championship at Castellani Pool. He said he left the championship in tears after losing all his races, but was determined to get better.

He reflected that he had returned home to ‘the blacka’ and with no coach, he was practising what he had seen the other swimmers do at Nationals; it didn’t work. Fowler was beaten, again.

Fast-forward to his last year in secondary school, he asked his mom to help him with funds to travel to Georgetown to learn how to swim competitively. He turned up at Colgrain Pool and would explain to different coaches his desire to learn how to swim. They all rejected him, Fowler said, telling him that he’s too old and wouldn’t be able to make it.

Nonetheless, Dolphin Swim Club was accommodating and coach Jaime Skeete took Fowler under his wings.
Fowler said he would practise some of the techniques from the pool in ‘the blacka’.

He said it took him almost a year to learn how to ‘flip turn’ in the pool. But with his sister’s ‘tights’ and the cheapest goggles he could have found, he won his first race at Nationals in his final year of high school.

He enrolled at the Government Technical Institute (GTI) after finishing secondary school. Most days, Fowler said, he would head to training at Colgrain with nothing to eat, since his mother at the time could have only afforded lunch money and some change for transportation.

When training moved from Colgrain to the Aquatics Centre, Fowler said he became a financial burden for his mom, but she was able to sustain him until 2016, when he was approached by the Guyana Police Force.

The Guyana Police Force, Fowler said, allowed him to earn a salary and focus on swimming.
He recounted his first international outing, in 2015, at the World Championships in Russia.

Fowler said he was more in awe at seeing the inside of an aircraft. It was his first time in one and his first time leaving the country.
Fast-forward: Fowler would represent Guyana at every major championship.