Well, 2020 escalated quickly.

One minute, we’re moseying along, minding our business, whistling, perhaps. The next? ‘Rona is launching off the top turnbuckle and dropping a wicked-sharp COVID elbow on our unsuspecting heads. Repeatedly.

2020 was a bit of a busted goggle strap, but things are looking up. New year, new attitude, new extra-stretchy goggle strap. Here are 21 swimmish happenings we can look forward to, divided into the "realistic" and "maybe-not-so, but we can hope" categories.

Realistic

1. The push for diversity, equity and inclusion continues — in both USA Swimming and society as a whole.
2. Pools continue to be refilled with hundreds of thousands of gallons of optimism.
3. Age group meets take place safely, complete with cheering on teammates and personal bests.
4. Trials once again puts on a show of incredible swims, memorable moments and awesome reactions. Expect full-send swims throughout the eight days.
5. 40ish swimmers get to wear the American flag cap on the international stage.
6. Kathleen Baker replaces her signature pair of pearl earrings with a slightly larger pair of pearl earrings.
7. Legions of dedicated volunteers — timers, clerks, runners, officials — return to the deck in a safe manner and continue to play integral roles in making swimming such an incredible sport.
8. The Lander Valley High School boys swim and dive team shoots for its 25th-consecutive Wyoming state championship.
9. Eleven-year-old Maya Siu of the Burlingame Aquatics Club swims at an age group meet in California and has a lot of fun.
10. Morning practice resumes. The water at morning practice continues to be piped in from the Arctic Circle.
11. American swimmers get the taste of chlorine again, whether that be at their local pool, Olympic stage or anything in between.

1. In addition to fast swims in 2021, Simone Manuel makes an appearance on Food Network’s Chopped: Gold Medal Cuisine. She plates steamed salmon with nectarine corn salsa and honey-glazed balsamic brussel sprouts in the final — not surprisingly in an impressive time — propelling her to the top of the culinary podium.
2. Cody Miller posts 712 vlogs by mid-March, breaking a long-standing vlogging record held by prolific Russian vlogger Vlogdimir Vlogankov.
3. That one UNO game contested by that one group of swimmers under that one set of bleachers at that one meet in that one small town in Iowa is completed.
4. Matt Grevers inexplicably grows four inches at age 36, striding to the blocks in Omaha at an even seven-foot tall.
5. The Manhattan Makos Swim Team successfully petitions FINA to change the name of the breaststroke to the whack-a-mole extravaganza.
6. Rowdy Gaines — an Omaha-based punk rock polka band comprised of local financial advisors — also breaks onto the scene in June.
7. Caleb Dressel touches the pad prior to actually leaving the blocks, becoming the first human to swim a sub-zero-second 50-meter freestyle.
8. Chlorine-scorched coifs are back, baby!
9. Katie Ledecky attempts a full 1500m freestyle in the Stanford Cardinal tree mascot costume.
10. Cody Miller makes an appearance in the newly-released film, Harry Potter and Quidditch and Spells and Wands and Stuff as Vlogsummor, a gregarious vlogging wizard who flat-out crushes the field in the final of the 100 meter whack-a-mole extravaganza at the Hogwarts Olympic Team Trials.