Every day in the swimming pool is one day closer to surgery for Livi Cox, a procedure to repair an injury that would have sidelined many athletes a long time ago.
For Cox, though, the idea of not swimming for the Union High School this season, her senior season, would have been worse than the pain she experiences any time she dislocates her left shoulder.
For Cox, opting for surgery before the season would have been same thing as quitting.
“This is the most difficult thing I have ever faced in my life. But I don’t want to give up,” Cox said. “I have never given up before. Why start now?”
She does not even give up when she dislocates her shoulder during a race. In fact, she had her best time of the year in the 200-yard individual medley after dislocating her shoulder as she dove into the pool in a meet against Camas. She quickly popped the shoulder back into place and endured, then thrived.
“It was excruciating. I was crying behind my goggles,” Cox said.
She had a bunch of friends who came to the pool that day to cheer for her.
“They said my face looked awful. When I touched the wall at the finish, I went white.”
Still, it was worth it. It is, she said, the life of an athlete committed to her sport.
“I’ve cried so much over this. It is a hard decision. But I just told myself I could get through it,” Cox said. “It’s all for that final touch on the wall. It’s all about when you drop time. You want to see it all pay off.”
Cox and the Titans hope it all goes their way at the district championships this week in Kelso. Cox is looking to qualify for state in the 200 IM and the 500 freestyle as well as in two relays.
“No matter how I finish at state, I’m going to be proud of myself,” Cox said.
After all, back in the summer of 2014, she had no idea what her immediate swimming future would be like after she suffered the injury for the first time. She was scared. She did not know what happened. She dove into a pool in California in a meet with her new club team and something was seriously wrong.
Then the pain hit her.
“I was screaming. It was awful. The worst pain I have ever felt,” Cox said.
She was helped out of the water and placed on a stretcher — the pain so intense she could not move.
Cox recovered in time for the fall high school season, qualifying for state as a junior. But since then, she has suffered shoulder dislocation three more times. She is no longer scared — she knows what it is when it happens — but the anxiety associated with the prospect of it happening again can take its toll.
Then again, not a big enough toll to actually keep her from swimming. Cox has been seen by three doctors, including a surgeon.
“I shouldn’t be swimming. If I was their kid, they said they would not let me swim,” Cox said. “I can swim, but it’s excruciating pain.”
Cox is being careful, only diving into the pool from the blocks during the biggest races of the year.
Of course, that meet against Camas was one of the big ones. But because she has experience with dislocated shoulders, she simply popped it right back into place after it happened on the initial dive into the pool. The pain doesn’t go away, but she was able to use the shoulder in posting the best time of any swimmer in Southwest Washington this season.
“I was dumbfounded she was still able to swim that fast,” Union coach Dave Shoup said.
Shoup had to help Cox out of the water that day. But a few minutes later, she was back to being typical Livi, he said.
“Put me in, Coach, I’m fine,” Shoup explained. “She said, ‘I can still do the relays.’ I said, ‘No, you can just sit down.'”
Cox would have been a team leader with or without the injury. The injury, though, does have a silver lining for the coach.
“It makes it hard for a girl to say, ‘I can’t swim today because I have a runny nose’ when they see someone else battling through that kind of pain,” Shoup said.
Surgery is not scheduled, but it is expected to happen soon after the high school season. Cox has gone on some recruiting trips and has let college coaches know of her condition. They are fine with it, Cox said, because all involved expect surgery to correct the problem.
So now it is about getting to the finish line a couple more times for the Union Titans.
“If you tell yourself you can do it, you can do it,” Cox said. “I’m mentally strong. I can get through it. I can finish this. I will finish this.”
