Hollis Tannery, right, cheers on the Boys 5 team during the Boys’ and Girls’ Club Water Olympics on Thursday, July 26, 2018, at the Beeson Youth Center. HALDAN KIRSCH/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Boys’ and Girls’ Club Water Olympics finished with a scream-off to decide who won.
The Water Olympics took place Thursday, July 26, at Club’s waterfront. Clubbers were split evenly between Red and Blue teams, in both numbers and abilities. Participants covered themselves in “war paint” to represent their teams — and because it was fun. Water Olympics had events for all groups, like Inner Tube Pull, Sponge Relay and a Club favorite, Tug-a-Melon, for younger participants. Older Clubbers participated in Basketball Shoot, a 25-yard Freestyle and a Kayak Relay.
“I like how we do the watermelon tug,” said Emma Chubb, waterfront staffer. “It’s kind of original, and you don’t see that anywhere else.”
At the end of Water Olympics, the score was tied at 195 points each. Most of the events were five points and were best out of three. The Kayak Relay awarded points to the top three groups, with first place earning five points, second place earning four points and third place earning three points.
The Olympics can’t end in a tie, so the only practical thing to do was a scream-off between Red and Blue.
One of Tyler Chamberlain’s friends from SAC Boys brought his water shoes, which earned his team two extra points. Chamberlain believed that was the reason his Blue team lost.
“His team got an extra two points and if he didn’t do that, we would have won,” Tyler said.
“I was surprised. Normally Blue wins and when they announced Red won I was sad,” said Isabella Boughton, 7G.
The 25-yard Freestyle was the favorite event for two of the winners of the race.
“It was really fun. At one point, I thought one of my friends was gaining on me but I pulled it out,” said Daniel Gefter, 6B.
“I didn’t think I was going to win,” Isabella said. “It was this other girl in my group that was really good, and I thought she would beat me. But I got to the rope before her. I was surprised.”
All the events went well, and Chubb said no major injuries were sustained.
“The safety was awesome,” she said. “That’s definitely our top concern, and we go over that before every event.”
At the end of the day, it was another successful Water Olympics.
“The events were very fun, and I want to do it again,” Daniel said.
