The Legacy of Ted Mullin and the Hour of Power
Ted Mullin was a swimmer at Carleton College in Minnesota who died of a rare soft tissue cancer known as sarcoma. The Hour of Power swimming event was created in his honor in 2006 and has been held every year since.
“It was started because a close friend, teammate, classmate of mine, Ted Mullin, was diagnosed with a rare form of soft tissue cancer during our sophomore year while we were studying and swimming at Carleton College in Minnesota,” UW-Whitewater head coach Elise Knoche said. “He battled the cancer for about two years.”
Club, high school, college and international teams all take part in the Hour of Power. Around 134 teams and over 5,700 athletes participated in this year’s edition of the Hour of Power. The event helps raise money for the Ted Mullin Fund for Pediatric Sarcoma Research at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital.
You can donate to the Ted Mullin Fund to help the sarcoma research on TedMullinFund.org.
This year’s Hour of Power
The Hour of Power is an hour-long relay race of 100 meters consisting of four lanes. Both the men’s and women’s swim teams participated in the Hour of Power inside the Williams Center Pool. The Hour of Power is unlike other events on teams’ schedules. Teams participating in the event have it in their own gyms, not like a regular swim meet where teams compete against each other. The swimmers left it all inside the pool and had the energy throughout the hour.
“It’s really great to see them work hard, but also have fun,” Knoche said. “Doing something that is happening across the nation all at the same time is kind of a powerful thing.”
The swim provides the opportunity to honor Mullin and contribute to sarcoma research, but it also is a great opportunity for the swim and dive programs to come together.
“I really like the Hour of Power,” sophomore swimmer Peyton Walz said. “I think it is a great way to raise awareness for a rare type of cancer. It’s definitely a fun practice where all the team gets to swim together during the same practice, and there’s a lot of great energy, a lot of good vibes, and it’s always something that we look forward to as a team.”
The Hour of Power allowed the swimmers to do any stroke they chose. Whether freestyle, backstroke, butterfly or other swim styles. The swimmers not only dedicated their great energy into the event, but the swimmers got to make the most out of the different style of practice.
“This practice is a lot easier than some of the other practices we do.” Walz said. “We usually swim for two hours every day for practice, so this is basically an hour straight of relays. But it’s really fun, because we love relays. We finally get to swim in a group setting, because swimming is very individual, and so it’s a great atmosphere for just community and fun vibes, and the team makes it really fun.”
Both the men’s and women’s swim and dive teams will travel to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, for a competition stretching over Saturday and Sunday.
