“Have you propositioned any of the other female sport media?” Belinda the sport writer whispered when she and the swimmer were nestled together in the taxi’s back seat.
“You already know the answer to that one.” The swimmer intoned. “And from here forward, all I expect to hear from you are intelligent and purposeful questions.”
“Agreed.” Belinda thought for a spell. ‘Yes, it would’ve become public news overnight if this were the swimming star’s normal night pickup routine.’ “I do have a question that other sports journalists have continually asked without receiving a satisfactory reply from you. Why didn’t you compete in the four-by-one hundred swimming relay event?”
“I’m not a team player.” Scott spoke softly with his lips next to her ear, to keep the night driver from overhearing. The warm breath of his words fluttered her shimmering hair slightly and he felt the sports reporter quiver from the pleasurable vibrations on the nape her neck. “Water polo is a team sport and that’s why I don’t play it, even though I swim well enough to excel at that game.”
“You were accepted onto a nation’s Olympic swimming t-e-a-m,” she stretched the word out, “and that gave you an obligation that you didn’t meet.”
“I won a berth on an Olympic swimming squad on the basis of my having swum qualifying heats faster than anyone else the nation could field and I then proved my merit by taking first place in every swimming event that I entered. Had I considered swimming a team sport, I wouldn’t have tried out, for the same reason that I don’t go out for water polo.”
“What’s wrong with team sports?” The night taxi driver asked over his shoulder.
“If one enjoys playing in or watching a team sport, then nothing is wrong with them. But I prefer individual sports where my own performance is all I need to rely on. The swimming relay event bastardizes the solo pursuit of competitive swimming to create a mockery of a team endeavor. The end product is a farce that returns false results.”
“Four swimmers each race one quarter of the total distance and the combined time is measured against the other teams.” The sports reporter said. “How could that be a false result?”
