Dear Governor Carney,
     My name is Kyle Skelly and I am 15 years old. I am a competitive club swimmer and a high school swimmer. I was able to finish my freshman year of swimming for my high school before the pandemic occurred and restrictions were put into place. It was the most amazing experience, one I will never forget. I understand the need to social distance and respect your decision, but I am here to ask you to lift the ban on swim teams not being able to train. I saw a petition sent to the New Jersey Governor and Pennsylvania Governor and just felt compelled to write one to you in hopes you will take the time to read it and understand the importance of us club swimmers getting back into the water. I am joined by other competitive swimmers signing the petition who are ready to return to competitive training in our state’s pools in a responsible manner.
       My teammates and I are very concerned and eager to to swim again. We have never been out of the water this long. Across the state, pools are opening back up after over 60 days of being closed but we are being told we can not meet as a swim team and train. This is causing many of our great swimmers to lose the feel for the water, which is critical for our sport. Just like with any endurance sport, once us swimmers stop training for more than two weeks we begin to lose our aerobic endurance and as time continues without us in the pool our performance continues to decrease dramatically. Some of us have been swimming since we were little kids and this is heartbreaking and effecting us mentally. This time off means that it is going to take months to get back to our level of competition, and for some if time off continues they may never get back to the level they were at. Swimming is not a sport where one can just stop training, and pick up where you left off. It takes months and hours and hours of training. At my level a lot of us were training 9 times a week before we we had to come to a complete stop. We need to have access to train and I know that training in Delaware for our competitive swimmers can be done safely.
     A big thing us swimmers have in our favor with our beloved sport is chlorine kills the coronavirus and helps prevent the spread of this and all other viruses. On the CDC website it clearly states, “There is no evidence that the virus that caused COVID-19 can be spread to people through water in pool, hot tubs, spas, or water play areas. Proper operation and maintenance (including disinfection with chlorine and bromine) of these facilities should inactivate the virus in the water.” Https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/water.html  Also evidence has shown that the virus dies quickest in high temperature, high humidity, and direct sunlight. All of this is present in pools.
     Us swimmers do understand that we need to take safety precautions seriously as well as practice social distancing during our practices. Here is USA Swimming’s Guidance to how this could safely work: https://swimmingworlmagazine.com/news/usa-swimming-presents-clubs-with-safe-ways-to-return-to-practice USA swimming and our local clubs have put a ton of time into planning the safest ways for swimmers to get back into the pool, our safety is not taken lightly. We are a very focused, hard working group of swimmers and we ask that you trust our maturity to return to training responsibly. If you grant us the privilege to return to swimming we will not disappoint you or the people of Delaware. Maybe the pools that opened this past weekend and gyms that are opening June 1st that are used for competitive swimmers to train could get the green light to allow us to train observing the guidelines set by the CDC and USA swimming.
     We appreciate everything the government is doing to keep people safe, however we ask that you trust us serious swimmers to return to the pools in a responsible way. Our mental and physical health depend on it. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read my petition and consider what I am asking of you.

Sincerely,
Kyle Skelly and Competitive Swimmers and families that have signed this petition.