Aerospace and Aquatics Champion: Charlie Cockrell's Inspiring Journey, EP 271

Transcript

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Welcome to Champions Mojo.

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Join us for conversations that inspire and empower you as an adult athlete, fitness enthusiast or master swimmer.

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Our goal is to make each episode insightful and inspirational and to discover what it takes to build or keep a life of personal excellence.

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I'm your host, kelly Pallas, and we're here to champion you.

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Hey, I'm doing an on-deck interview with Charlie Cockrell.

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He is a 56-year-old swimmer for the DC Aquatics Club, the master's team in DC, and I'm a huge fan of Charlie.

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I've known him for years.

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He is a tremendous volunteer and official with US Masters Swimming and we are friends from Virginia, but then I've swum in Florida and you come down and swim with us when you're there for work.

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Let's start with telling.

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First.

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Let's say welcome to Champions Mojo.

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Yeah, thanks, kelly.

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This is fantastic.

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I appreciate what you do, and just hearing all of these stories from swimmers all over the country, it's fantastic, so thanks.

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Well, you have a fantastic story and first tell us when you go down to the Space Coast and what you do, because it's pretty cool.

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Well, I am the Director of Engineering at NASA Langley Research Center.

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If you're not familiar with that, nasa has 10 centers all over the country and at Langley we are a research and development center.

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So we are developing new technologies, demonstrating things and bringing those for missions and commercial applications.

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So when I go down to the Space Coast it's really to work together with our commercial partners and also some of the launch capabilities that are at Kennedy Space Center.

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We do that all over the country.

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So and it's one of the parts of my job I really enjoy when you work for NASA, right, I like to say we are doing this to solve big challenges for the nation and for society and of course, that takes a lot of capability.

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So we all have to work together and fortunately I'm able to swim with your team, kelly.

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Usually when I come down to the Space Coast and I'm fortunate enough, when I travel around the country and go to the other NASA centers or places, I can swim with a Masters team or a group and everybody is always so welcoming and it's actually fun to do, to get different workouts and meet new people, so always enjoy it.

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That is one of the coolest things about Masters is being able to travel around and swim anywhere with fellow fellow Masters swimmers.

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So also, you are a let me see.

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I don't think you can get any higher ranking as a Masters swimming official than you are, because I see you at Masters Nationals as, like that, the top guy or one of the top officials.

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Tell us about your volunteerism, because it's that does not come easily.

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Yeah, I volunteered for years for Masters.

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It's something I really enjoyed doing.

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I've been an official, a deck official, for a long time in both USA Swimming and Masters.

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I've done a lot of things locally in Virginia.

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I was the chair of the LMSC, I was the official's chair and I really enjoyed that because I got to know all of the people here locally and it was just a really fun group and we all worked together very, very well.

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And then at the national level, let's see, I've chaired the officials committee.

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I chaired the rules committee.

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That was really a nice job.

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It was my favorite job probably.

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I really enjoyed doing that and the legislation committee.

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I served two years on the board of directors and I finished that this past September and so I'm back to just being an official.

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I'm going to be the head starter at our International Gay and Lesbian, our Igla Championships that are coming up in Washington DC this June.

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It's going to be a great meet and we're looking forward to welcoming people from all over the world to the United States for that meet.

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So already in the planning stages of that, that is so cool.

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You will be the guy saying take your mark.

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I'm the head starter for that meet.

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So yes, I will be saying take your mark quite a bit for that meet.

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Yes, how many people do you expect for that meet?

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I think we'll get upwards of maybe 500, 600 or more people for that meet.

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I think we're planning for several hundred people.

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I just finished the competition that we had down in Buenos Aires in November and I think we had about 500 people.

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So that's very typical and again at that time of the year that'll be a wonderful short course, meters, championship and so great meet in a nice pool, but also in an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere, which is really the essence of master swimming.

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But at Igla we also like to do that and welcome people from all over the world in that environment.

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Isn't that the truth?

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That it's just Masters is so welcoming, and Igla is obviously is even more welcoming sometimes.

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So tell me about Igla.

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Can I swim in it?

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Absolutely.

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We welcome everybody.

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It's very inclusive.

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So, whether you're part of the LGBT community or you're an ally, anybody can come.

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And the meet that we're going to host in Washington DC it's going to be the first week of June we will be hosting that.

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Dc Aquatics Club is the host.

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It's the first time.

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The IGLA International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics is what that stands for.

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Championships will be in the United States since 2019.

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Sorry, they were 2019 in New York, 2022 in Palm Springs and now 2025 in Washington DC, and we're going to have some wonderful swimming.

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The meet will start on a Saturday, so Saturday, sunday, monday, there'll be an open water event on Tuesday, wednesday swimming and Thursday will be a complete relay day, which is going to be a super fun day with music and a great time and a great camaraderie.

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Longbridge Aquatic Center in Arlington, virginia, will be the site of the meet.

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The short course meters meet so great opportunity to get those short course meters top 10 and records.

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And great competition, so great competition.

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Fun times It'll be the week before the World Pride event is scheduled to happen in Washington DC and just an inclusive, fun atmosphere.

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If you have never been to an IGLA meet, it's really well run but also just a super fun welcoming kind of place.

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A lot of team camaraderie, but everybody is welcome to come from across the United States and across the world, so we look forward to that.

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And I will put the.

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If you'll give me the link, I'll put that in the show notes so anybody listening to the show can find it.

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And do you have to be a US master swimmer to swim in the meet, or how do you enter?

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So it is sanctioned by US master swimming.

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So it's just like a regular meet.

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If you are a USMS member, you can sign up.

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We'll put the link in there, just like you would do for any normal meet, like.

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Club.

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Assistant.

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It's a little bit of a different system but it's going to work almost the same as Club Assistant, so it'd be very easy to navigate.

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And if you are not a USMS member, I think we are offering a one event registration so you could be a USMS member just for the meet, just like we would do normally.

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So it'll be run just like a master's meet, just a lot more fun.

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And you can bring your spouse, and DC is a great city for people that who don't want to swim can hang out and do something else.

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Absolutely, there'll be plenty to do.

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I should also mention there's swimming, diving, water polo, artistic swimming, so you can watch all those other sports.

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There's an open water event and, like you said, plenty to do in Washington DC.

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There's tons of culture, entertainment, food, sports.

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So bring your spouse partner, bring your family, and it'll be a really fun time.

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We really would love everybody to come.

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One of the things I've noticed that you and your husband, drew, do well is incorporate your swimming into travel and fun.

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So share with us a little bit what you might suggest to people if they're trying to get their spouse to go to a meet.

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I know Drew's patiently watching, so I'm filming your 100 IM today, so what do you recommend?

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Yeah, my husband Drew.

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He's a great supporter.

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He'll tell the story.

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His swimming career peaked when he was eight years old and he has a blue ribbon for the 25 butterfly that he didn't get to cue in Summer League and he decided that that was it.

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So now he just Wait, end on a high note.

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Right, I'm still trying to, I'm still going right, trying to get to that accomplishment, but no, I just.

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For example, we just I mentioned we went to Buenos Aires to attend the Igla Championship and so we turned that into a nice vacation.

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I try to balance the swimming with things that we could do outside of that, which is really always nice to do, and those multi-day meets.

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I will tell him come for one or two events and then he'll find some time to go out by himself and do some touring and then, when the meet is over, we will spend time together.

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And then I try to pick events so that I'm not I'm not just swimming the entire time.

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I want to balance, you know, his time and us being able to enjoy the trip together, and usually we're able to do that very, very well.

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Like I said, he's a great supporter, always supporting my swimming and coming, but then we're able to turn that into really nice trip and vacation and also going with my DC Aquatics teammates we're able to get out and enjoy the city and you got the swimming and you got the culture and you got all of those things that you can balance.

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So he's been a great sport about it coming to all these meets.

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Yeah, he is.

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He's a sweetheart.

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So tell us how your swimming played into.

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I'm so impressed with your career and your volunteerism.

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How did swimming play this role in you being, you know, such a successful career, and give us a little background on where your swimming started and how it developed?

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Gosh, yeah, I started, probably like a lot of people, I was a summer league swimmer.

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I started when I was nine years old in Hampton, virginia, and I think I just developed a love for it.

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Overall I was never a championship swimmer, going to nationals or anything like that, but it kept me healthy and I enjoyed it and I enjoyed the social aspect of it.

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I didn't swim in college, but I picked up on master's a little bit after I graduated from college and what I really enjoyed about master's is that, first of all, it is a great way to start your day.

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If I don't start my day with either in the pool or dry land or something I feel off, and so I think what it does is it allows me to be, from a career perspective, really productive and have energy and stay motivated.

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Is it allows me to be, from a career perspective, really productive and have energy and stay motivated and it also keeps me really really healthy and it's a great, great stress relief kind of thing right, I'd say I probably would not be able to do my job well or be a good leader or be as productive if I didn't have this aspect of it right.

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So I think it's a big component, but also it's just something that I really enjoy, and the biggest part of it is the people.

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When I came in today, I saw you, I saw several other other friends, uh, and I said that's, that's what I really enjoy when I come to a meet is I leave feeling energized and really, you know, just haven't connected with people and it's really, really nice.

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Yeah, what does a training week look like with your heavy, you know work schedule, how many days a week and kind of yardage bit more than I did in my younger days.

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So you know, rather than go and just try to crank out hundreds and like that, I've gotten to be a big fan of the high intensity, with rest and recovery and trying to do a little more race pace kinds of things.

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And then I think in the last few years, really appreciating the value of a good recovery day.

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Right, I used to feel bad if I couldn't swim every day.

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Now I recognize it's actually a good thing.

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You get a high intensity workout and recover.

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So I will.

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I will swim, you know, monday, wednesday, friday, or sometimes Monday, tuesday, thursday.

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Then those other days will be dry land, because now I appreciate the value of strength training and that's a great workout.

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And then Sunday morning what I really really love to do is just go out for a nice five or six mile run and I'm not competitive when it comes to running, but that's just to get out and enjoy the scenery, have a great day, listen to music, kind of dampen down the Sunday scaries a little bit.

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And again, just doing something every day like that keeps me going.

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Well, you swum a variety of events from the 100 IM to the 500 free coming up next.

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So what is that about?

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Just this variety?

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That is unusual for me.

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I would say I am a breaststroker.

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Breaststroke and IM is what I will usually do.

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But this meet I decided to do some different things and I can't tell you why.

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It just felt like it was a really good to do.

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I said when I was signing up.

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I said I don't just want to do the same thing Also just swimming Igla.

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In November I swam all the breaststroke and IM events and I thought wouldn't it be really fun to try something different today?

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So the 200 back I hadn't swum it in a long time.

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It felt really good.

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We're going to see what this 500 free looks like.

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I think it maybe has been over 10 years since I've done it in a meet, so I'm going to just try to have fun with it.

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And but I actually think that was one of my goals coming into this year was to do a little bit more racing, swim some different events and get some variety in there outside of my normal range.

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So I'm looking forward to it.

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Yeah, I like that.

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I kind of did the same thing, like, ok, I've had a meet, I did all the times.

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Well, what can I say?

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That's different Because there are only a few events.

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So is there anything that I have not asked you that you would like to share?

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with our listeners.

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Well, I would just say, you know, I've been a master swimmer now gosh for 30 plus years, which is amazing to say, hard to believe, right?

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And I think one of the things I've really noticed is the makeup of master swimming has changed tremendously.

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When I came in today, you know, I said on the one hand I used to know everybody at the meet and I and that is not the case anymore I really enjoy seeing old friends, but I also enjoy seeing all these new swimmers that are coming in that are invigorating the sport.

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And I think, as I've gotten older and I've seen the makeup of master swimming change, it's really made me appreciate the sport more.

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Right, I used to get very anxious at meets and things like that and now I try to have a lot more fun with it and I see it as a you know, just really vibrant and it's nice to see it growing.

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And again, I'm glad I'm still able to do it.

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I'll do it as long as I can and, again, always about seeing the people that are involved.

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That's what keeps us going.

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Yes, and it's always great to see you, and thank you so much for all your volunteerism for US Master Swimming, because we wouldn't be growing, master Swimming wouldn't be growing, without people like you.

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So thanks, charlie, and thanks for spending time with me today.

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Well, thank you, kelly.

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I appreciate you know I've watched you swim for many years and I know you're a very, very good swimmer, but I appreciate that now you're out there collecting and telling these stories of people all over the country.

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It's really fascinating and fantastic to see.

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So thanks for what you're doing and thanks for letting me talk to you today.

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Absolutely.

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Thank you for listening to the Champions Mojo podcast.

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Aerospace and Aquatics Champion: Charlie Cockrell's Inspiring Journey, EP 271

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