When Marcus Titus is gliding through the water, his head bobbing up and down, he does not hear the roar of the crowd.
Or anything else, for that matter.
Deaf since birth, Titus swims in a quiet isolation that he believes actually gives him an edge over those in the other lanes, who can hear everything going on around them.
“I do not have to hear the crowd, the noises, the distractions,” Titus said. “I can just focus on my race.”
Titus is serving as an inspiration to others with so-called disabilities. He made it all the way to the 100m breaststroke final at the US swimming trials, but finished sixth on Monday night to fall short of his first Olympics at age 30.
“I did the best I could,” Titus said. “That was a hard race.”
A native of Tucson, Arizona, Titus did not start swimming competitively until his freshman year of high school, but he never let his disability stand in the way.
When potential roadblocks did pop up — most notably, he cannot hear the buzzer that most swimmers go by to begin the race — he pushed for strobe lights to be installed under the starting blocks, evening things out when it is time to dive into the pool.
“To me, being deaf is not a disability,” Titus said. “It is just hearing loss.”
When Titus was three years old, his parents learned he was deaf. They quickly shook off the jarring news, doing everything they could to ensure their son had a normal childhood. His mother, Mieko, was the one who pushed him to try swimming.
Titus did not take to the pool right away. He despised the long practices and was not a fan of the skimpy swimsuits. As soon as he started competing at meets — and, right from the start, touching the wall ahead of everyone else — he knew he had found his life’s passion.
“I loved that feeling of winning,” Titus said. “That is what kept me going.”
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