{"id":18276,"date":"2025-08-19T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T12:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=18276"},"modified":"2025-08-15T14:01:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T18:01:55","slug":"poet-of-the-pool-mg-king-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2025\/08\/19\/poet-of-the-pool-mg-king-27\/","title":{"rendered":"Poet of the Pool: MG King \u201927"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While some athletes have a warm-up song, MG King \u201927 is a bit different: They warm up to the beats of a poem. By the time T.S. Eliot\u2019s lines from The Waste Land<\/em> \u2014 \u201cthe evening hour that strives \/ Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea\u201d \u2014 echo through their headphones, King is halfway through their consistent routine: swim, stretch, and swim some more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colgate swimming\u2019s first Academic All-League honoree since 2014, King\u2019s major in classics and the \u201csomewhat intellectual sport\u201d are intertwined. \u201cEach race requires its own special \u2018scheme\u2019 of sorts,\u201d they say. \u201cPart of the fun is getting to figure out and perfect your own strategies: what you are capable of physically as well as mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFreestyle has this rhythm to it,\u201d says King. \u201cIt\u2019s not exactly like a pentameter, but you can kind of make it that.\u201d In fact, King doesn\u2019t just think of others\u2019 poems while swimming \u2014 they also write their own. \u201cWhen I\u2019m swimming, I come up with some of my best work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by fantasies of Greek legend and early modern literature, King is a daydreamer. \u201cAt practice, you\u2019re staring at the bottom of the pool for two to three hours a day, so you have to think of something,\u201d they say. \u201cWhen I\u2019m practicing, I\u2019ll run over Latin and Greek word endings [e.g., -us, -a, -um, -ic] for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s Pharsalia<\/em> \u2014 a historical epic about the civil war between Caesar and Pompey \u2014 and the lingering impact of civil war on Roman society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the evenings, you\u2019re equally likely to find them by the pool or huddled in the woods with their friends reading Hamlet<\/em>, trying to snag the lead role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have realized over time that these two spheres of my life are literally inseparable,\u201d says King, who compares tough swim practices to hard Greek exams. \u201cAbove all, though, I think what unites them most is the delight that comes only from pushing through what makes you uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet MG King \u201927, Colgate swimming’s first Academic All-League honoree since 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1263,"featured_media":18279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[3064,40,1292,94,3063,1500],"coauthors":[1451],"class_list":["post-18276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scene","tag-academic-all-league","tag-athletics","tag-patriot-league","tag-poetry","tag-swim","tag-swimming"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-4KM","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/08\/King_MG_2Q5A8846.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1263"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18276"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18324,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18276\/revisions\/18324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18276"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=18276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}