While some athletes have a warm-up song, MG King ’27 is a bit different: They warm up to the beats of a poem. By the time T.S. Eliot’s lines from The Waste Land — “the evening hour that strives / Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea” — echo through their headphones, King is halfway through their consistent routine: swim, stretch, and swim some more.
Colgate swimming’s first Academic All-League honoree since 2014, King’s major in classics and the “somewhat intellectual sport” are intertwined. “Each race requires its own special ‘scheme’ of sorts,” they say. “Part of the fun is getting to figure out and perfect your own strategies: what you are capable of physically as well as mentally.”
To receive the Academic All-League distinction, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.20 cumulative GPA and be a key player within their sport. During the four-day Patriot League Championship weekend in February, King compiled 68 points for the Raiders. They were a top scorer in their favored events: the 100/200m backstroke and the freestyle.
“Freestyle has this rhythm to it,” says King. “It’s not exactly like a pentameter, but you can kind of make it that.” In fact, King doesn’t just think of others’ poems while swimming — they also write their own. “When I’m swimming, I come up with some of my best work.”
Inspired by fantasies of Greek legend and early modern literature, King is a daydreamer. “At practice, you’re staring at the bottom of the pool for two to three hours a day, so you have to think of something,” they say. “When I’m practicing, I’ll run over Latin and Greek word endings [e.g., -us, -a, -um, -ic] for myself.”
A Latin and Greek tutor at Colgate, King has been recognized as a George W. Cobb Fellow and a recipient of the Baldwin Greek Prize. Their current work as a James Madison Fellow is focused on Lucan’s Pharsalia — a historical epic about the civil war between Caesar and Pompey — and the lingering impact of civil war on Roman society.
In the evenings, you’re equally likely to find them by the pool or huddled in the woods with their friends reading Hamlet, trying to snag the lead role.
“I have realized over time that these two spheres of my life are literally inseparable,” says King, who compares tough swim practices to hard Greek exams. “Above all, though, I think what unites them most is the delight that comes only from pushing through what makes you uncomfortable.”