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BEHIND THE STRIPES

Dylan Yin & Nick Goudie

By Atlanta United FC

May 26^th, 2022

Nick Goudie and Dylan Yin love the water. And that’s a good thing because they’re in the water about 20 hours a week.

They’re both collegiate swimmers at Emory University, part of the team that won the NCAA Division III national championship in March. Goudie is a rising junior, Yin a rising sophomore. Goudie is a sprint swimmer who competes in freestyle and relays. Yin swims freestyle too, competing in the 50 Free and the 100 Free events, but swims the 100 Fly and 200 Fly as well.

As members of a collegiate men’s swimming and diving team, they’re in the pool usually every afternoon at the Madeline Jude Brown Aquatic Center in Atlanta. They estimate that they spend something between 20-23 hours in the water every week. They’ve been swimming since they were eight and nine years old, respectively, so the number of hours in the water adds up over time.

Water means different things to the two student-athletes, but in both their lives water provides balance. Yin defines swimming as a freeing feeling. For a student taking on an intimidating double major, finance and chemistry, being in the water offers somewhat a reprieve from his complex math and science classes. Swimming simply makes him happy.

“Whenever I'm having a bad day or I'm having a tough time, usually swimming for about half an hour to an hour will really loosen my mind and put away the things I've been stressed about,” he says. “It lets me have more of a mental reset. And then afterwards, I can get back into it and honestly be more productive than I was before.”

For Goudie, a film and marketing double major, his relationship with water is equal parts comforting and productive. As a student who is also an athlete and a creative hobbyist (he makes films in his spare time), Goudie says the different aspects of his life are dependent on the others. When he does well in one area, the others seem to follow. In 2022, he had one of the strongest performances of his swimming career and also had one of his best years in the classroom.

“Swimming has given me the opportunity to be comfortable and enjoy being in the water,” he says. “It also provides a routine that otherwise I would completely fall apart.”

Goudie and Yin swim competitively for their college program and both are familiar with the feeling that comes right before the start of a race. They line up on the block and take their marks. The adrenaline pumps. In their minds, they go over what they’ve practiced. They anticipate the moment when their bodies hit the water for the first time.

“When they say take your mark, the only thing in my mind is ‘When does the buzzer go off?’” Goudie says. “But minutes before that, I’m thinking about everything I’ve done in practice. You’re trying not to stress yourself out and you’re trying to rely on everything you’ve been doing the whole year to get you to this race.”

The buzzer sounds, then their bodies take over.

“I try to focus on details,” Goudie says. “But when you're swimming, it's very much you’re listening to your body. You're trying to fight pain, you're trying to fight the feeling of, ‘Oh, you’ve got to slow down.’ You rely on the practice to get the details right, but when you're there it’s more about being in the moment.”

“When I dive in, it's just darkness and quiet,” Yin says.

For the swimmers, racing is almost automatic. It’s about trusting the water and trusting that all their practice, all those hours in the pool, has gotten them to this place and they know what to do.

“You shouldn't be thinking too much because you've done what you need to do the entire time,” Goudie says. “Now, it's just time to put all that together. Your body knows what to do and your mind knows how to do it. So just, you know, do it.”

As members of a men’s swimming and diving team, it’s imperative that they put the work in at the pool. The swimming and diving program at Emory University is storied and successful. The women’s program has won 12 national championships, including nine consecutive from 2010-2019. The men have won the national championship twice, in 2017 and most recently this past spring.

Goudie and Yin were part of the team that won the 2022 nationals held in Indianapolis, Ind. during March. The title was the 30th national championship in the college's history.

At the 2022 nationals held in Indianapolis, Ind., Goudie earned All-America honors for his fifth-place finish in the 100 Free and was part of the 400 Free relay that was a national runner-up. He was part of the team's previous run to nationals in 2019 that was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic, so this time around was particularly meaningful.

“For me, it was really like a peak moment of being here because I started here in August 2019, and four or five days before we went to nationals my freshman year, it got cut,” he says. “So this really felt like taking advantage of an opportunity that got ripped from under us before.”

The Covid pandemic and quarantine restrictions put all the student-athletes on the same playing field entering the 2022 season. Rising juniors, like Goudie, felt like freshmen again and were able to complete their first full year. Only a few swimmers who were part of that run in 2019 remained. The fresh experience gave the team wide-eyed optimism and a hunger that they can achieve something great.

“When we all came in on the first day and the captains were like, ‘We're going to win this,’ it really put that into most people's heads,” Yin says. “And from that first day on, everyone really worked together in water.”

Once the team got going and won some meets, the momentum built. The ball started to roll through the season, as the team continued to win and break records. And when the postseason arrived, everyone was willing to train harder, which made it beneficial for the group.

“Swimming is a really big team sport, you can't do it all on your own,” Yin says. “From that first day on we had that goal in mind and everyday we just kept working towards it. And obviously in the end we got there.”

Goudie and Yin both grew up in Atlanta. Goudie is from Dunwoody; Yin from Lilburn. Yin, the younger of the two, graduated from Parkview High School. Goudie graduated from the Atlanta International School, where he was a two-time Academic All-American.

Both swimmers were able to start their careers at Georgia Swimming, the state-wide entity that most swimming clubs in Georgia fall under. Goudie swam competitively with Dynamo Swim Club. Yin meanwhile swam for Gwinnett Aquatics.

“Atlanta is a really diverse city, so it attracts a lot of different types of athletes,” Goudie says. “Growing up around kids who were swimmers but also growing up around people who are visiting Atlanta who would teach us at clinics and events like that, it was a really strong city for the presence of other athletes.”

Through swimming, Goudie got a chance to meet Olympic swimmers such as Ryan Lochte, Nathan Adrian, Caeleb Dressel and fellow Dunwoody native Brooks Curry, who won a gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Goudie and Yin are two of the first to wear Atlanta United’s 2022 Primeblue kit made with Parley Ocean Plastic, a jersey that is part of a league-wide initiative to support water conservation.

The jersey is crafted using threads made from upcycled plastic waste. Parley, a brand that partners with adidas, intercepts the waste from remote islands, shorelines, waters and coastal communities before it hits the ocean. Once collected, the original plastic source is reworked into technical fibers and repurposed for apparel or footwear.

Atlanta United will wear the kits for the club’s home match against Columbus Crew on May 28. The kit deviates some from the classic colors of the club, offering an electric blue that pops on the pitch, and the design reminds the swimmers of the water they know so well.

“I was wondering what they were going to do because Atlanta United’s colors are black, gold white, red, so I was like, ‘pure blue?’ I didn’t know what they're going to do,” Goudie says. “They pulled it out, and it's really cool. I love it. It looks like water.”

The swimmers have varying backgrounds with the sport of soccer. Yin admits that he’s not a big fan of many other sports besides swimming. Growing up, his parents encouraged him to focus on his studies. Goudie, on the other hand, learned soccer from an early age, growing up in an international family and going to an international school. He played the sport as a kid and recalls the club’s run to the MLS Cup behind Miguel Almirón and Josef Martínez.

“I think that it's the most followed and definitely the most electric sport in Atlanta,” Goudie said. “I've been to Braves games and those are fun. I've been to Falcons games, and those are fun if they win. But Atlanta United, no matter who they're playing, whether they win or lose, you're having a good time at the game and the atmosphere is great. The stadium’s almost always packed. And if you're in the fan section, you're bound to have a good time.”

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