Who Is Michael Phelps A Hero

Continuing his winning streak, he went and won fifty-two National Championship titles and broke over fifty records in swimming. He continued winning all the way to the Olympic Trials for Paris 1924 and swept past his rivals. He was on his way to the Olympics where he won 3 gold medals in the 100 and 400 free and in the 4x200 freestyle relay. He also took home a bronze alongside the mens' water polo team. He was an astounding athlete and all of his rivals feared

Imagine taking one step into a chlorine-filled arena. The humid air rushes onto your skin. An immense smile spreads across your face. This is because you know everything is about to change. In less than 24 hours you will be holding a glistening gold medal in your hand, standing up on the podium while the Star Spangled Banner blares for the whole world to hear and tears will stream down your face. Taking one look back at your coach, Teri McKeever, you realize if it wasn’t for her you would not be here. Graciously, you run up, swing your arms around her body, and embrace her in a powerful hug that says it all. Swimming is a very intense sport and consumes every second of a swimmer’s free time. However, putting in hundreds

Leaving him to fend for himself at the age of ten. Since then he had always been reserved. When he first joined the crew team he was failing because people did not show him respect and he did not trust anybody. Once he came over his fear of abandonment and the other boys began to trust each other, the boys created a bond where there was no ego or personal gain. Every decision and action was the for the good of the team. “The trick would be to find which few of them had the potential for raw power, the nearly superhuman stamina, the indomitable willpower, and the intellectual capacity necessary to master the details of technique. And which of them coupled improbably with all those other qualities, had the most important one: the ability to disregard his own ambitions, to throw his ego over the gunwales, to leave it swirling in the wake of his shell, and to pull, not just for himself, not just for glory, but for the other boys in the boat” (Barker 23). Even though Joe struggled his entire life, when he was in the boat with his team he put every fiber of his being towards the speed of his boat. Even in old age, Joe made sure that when The Boys in the Boat was written, that it was not just about him but about the boat. “But not just about me. It has to be about the boat.” (Rantz 3). Joe put his mind, body and soul into the boat and left his ego and personal gain at the door. That quality helped pave the way to his Olympic dream.

football games. He would describe how he felt that he didn't belong and felt like a loser. Although he gave

Aside from his brothers using him as an occasional punching bag, Charlie spent the majority of his time on the beach, which was conveniently located right out back his childhood home. "I remember taking my shoes off the day of summer vacation, and not putting them on again till summer vacation ended" said Charlie. Due to his family home being right on the water, Charlie had plenty of time to teach himself how to swim, and to focus on being a child. He is still very proud of himself, for being a self-taught swimmer, and believes that from a young age, he has always valued knowledge. When asked why his parents weren 't the ones to teach him the fundamentals, like swimming, Charlie answered "They tried, but I was always the kid that wanted to do things on my own." Charlie was never afraid to fail, and always took everything as a challenge.

In the book, “Swimming to Antarctica” by Lynne Cox, a very talented swimmer does something incredible creating a great story of her success. Lynne Cox truly does something amazing in her story and how it all started. But what is it that possessed her to accomplish this goal and work hard to be successful?

Moreover, he always sets goals and works hard to achieve them. His passion for sports has led him to a professional career. He worked extremely hard and was able to win many marathons, breaking the two-hour time record. Before long, he was able to win many gold, silver, and bronze medals. He also made sure athletes like him with disabilities were not left out in games. As he grew older, he started coaching sports, like wheelchair basketball, wheelchair volleyball, and softball. His determination allowed him to continue setting goals and working hard to achieve

As I mentioned before swimmers aren’t based on their ability to master the techniques but also in the values they posses. The values they posses are respect, honesty, fairness and courage. I had to learn and use those values everyday I went to swimming practice. There’s one thing that I needed to have to become part of the discourse community, which was being passionate about swimming and not giving up. At the beginning it was really hard for me not to give up when I was exhausted, but after becoming more passionate for swimming I never gave up. There were moments when I thought of giving up, but I knew that if I really wanted to call my self a swimmer I shouldn’t give up and I didn’t. For example, once I was in a Swimming Festival in my High School where I competed the four different strokes. I always finished second in the 50-meter freestyle race, but that day I decided I would end up first place. The race started and I jumped into the water and started pacing my self so that I would finish strong. In the first 25-meters we were all tied up and I was starting to feel tired. But I knew I couldn’t give up, so I took a deep breath and pushed harder. I pushed harder and was able to win the first place. After this race, I realized that even though I felt like giving up, something inside me was telling me to push harder and that thought led me to success. I was able to

At Emory, I feel that I could most accurately be described as a student-athlete. Academic success takes priority while I’m at Emory, but swimming is a close second. Spending hours daily in the pool, I have become a part of a tight-knit collection of academically and athletically prosperous students. Struggling through difficult sets and disappointing races together makes celebrating success even sweeter. We lean on each other for strength when we feel as if we don’t have enough individually. This team is comprised of caring individuals who work together to make the whole better than the individuals. From this community I have become a better team player and now I can add to the uplifting environment by drawing upon some of my innate qualities that make me a good teammate: I am supportive, dedicated, patient, kind, and hardworking. One of the unique characteristics of the swim team is that we don’t only work on creating a great community within the team, but we try to spread that excitement and desire for success to other communities. The swim team makes great contributions the Emory community by hosting Special Olympics every week at our pool and making appearances at many events such as sporting events and freshman move

As a casual reader of the sports section of this newspaper, you come across many articles depicting the triumphs of local athletes. However, very rarely do these articles describe the actual athlete behind the success. Athletes come in all sorts of sizes and shapes. They range from the incredibly talented to the horribly uncoordinated. Some are great teammates while others would rather be a one man team. Certain athletes seek out attention from the people around them while others are modest and stay in the background. The fact of the matter is that there is a wide spectrum of different types of athletes that exist in this world and no two athletes are exactly the same. However, each can be put

Point 3 – Stress is a leading cause for bad decisions, and swimming is an easy method for relieving stress.

My parents tell me that I took to swimming like... a fish takes to water. It is a safe place where I can float free of worries. Driven by passion and dedication, I decided to begin swimming competitively. Competitive swimming requires an intense level of determination and discipline. Forcing myself to get out of my warm bed at 5:30 in the morning to put on a still-slightly-damp swimsuit and stand in 40-degree weather waiting for practice to start. Putting up with limited lane space and irritating swimmers who think they are faster. Making a conscious effort to work on my stroke form, turns, touches, and techniques. The water becomes a whirlpool of injuries, losses, wins, friendships, enemies, and sickness. The water becomes home.

this, and used it as motivation to better his life. Speaking about that time, he says “everytime I

The journey of competitive swimming started at the age of eight for my local `neighborhood team. I exhibited great potential for the future, for I won nearly all my races. This seemed like the sport

By this time I had started to go through puberty and became taller which enabled me to swim faster. The morning group was full of dedicated swimmers who were crazy enough to get up every morning to go jump into a pool and practice. Of course I was no different, but during April of that season I had started to lose my motivation. I began to skip practices and gave my parents excuses, which then they told me to take it easy. After two months of periodic practices, I realized that swimming was an activity that I wanted to do and that I loved, and I decided that I would not allow myself to quit, no matter how hard it became. When the new season started, I started to push myself, trying to keep up to the faster swimmers. I became close with my team mates as people who go through pain together get closer. We started to have more fun together from going out, to having funny conversations in the locker rooms. I also began to do travel meets where we would spend a few days together, eating, sleeping, and swimming. I spent more time out of the pool with my friends and even became romantically involved with one. Now, swimming has become one of the most important things to me, it has been the activity that has the most influence on my life. From my work ethic, sleeping habits, to my choice of friends, all of them are tied to