Freestyle swimming

Growing up a student-athlete since the age of five, I quickly learned the importance and impact of goal setting, perseverance, accountability, and integrity. My sport, swimming, is a prime example of a sport where goal setting can make or break the athlete. I remember growing up with a clip board that was made of dry-erase material and it had my name and team written in bulky letters on the back. My mom and I printed out a page containing a table of my events, times, goal times, and records. I scanned

sport of swimming has not always been in my life. My interest in swimming came about when I moved to Grand Haven in middle school. The reason I became interested in it was simple enough, the first person I met from Grand Haven that went to my new school was an avid, as well as especially talented, swimmer. While I cannot remember exactly why this was enough to convince me to try something completely new in a brand new school with brand new people, I can look back on my choice to start swimming as an

and hopes of ever improving were lost. I added time from what I went in high school in two of my three individual events, going 100.4 when I had gone 59.1 in the 100 yard backstroke, and 2:14 when I had gone 2:08 before in the 200 yard backstroke. Swimming is a sport where fractions of a second determine a season, so it is consequently an extremely mental sport. A season can be considered a success if you drop .3 from your best time, an amount of time that is intangible. I remember not feeling anger

In September 2012 I was registered for my first swim meet. I was apprehensive and felt totally unprepared. I had learnt all the strokes, but had not gained proficiency in any of them. The meet was a complete disaster, and I ended up coming in last. The second swim meet was no better. I thought that over time my improvement would speak for itself, but I was wrong. After a few meets, I was still ranked below division C, and no where close to making it into A division. Although I trained harder and

Applicant #4 What the North Attleboro Swim Team Means to Me When I first joined the North Attleboro Swim Team my freshman year of high school, I did not know what to expect. Prior to joining, I had never swam on a team before so it was a whole new experience to me. As the first week of swim started, I was apprehensive if I wanted to continue since I was not on the same caliber as my other teammates were. The practices were brutal but extremely rewarding, as

“Eliana, stop swimming so close to the wall!” My high school swim coach would yell, at least once every practice. While being a successful high school swimmer and trying to maintain my high GPA, I have faced many obstacles. Some of them being physical barriers, like injuries, due to too much swimming, or struggles with too much AP homework, but I never expected the biggest obstacle in my high school swimming career to be the one in my head. The wall, made up of tiny white tiles, stretches twenty-five

water. The dreams that most people have when they sleep, I have when I swim. Having focused on competitive swimming since the age of nine, I continued my dedication for the sport as part of Caltech’s Division III NCAA Swim team that competes in the SCIAC division. Now as a swimmer and full-time student, my experiences juggling school and sports as well as the lessons I have learned in swimming have shaped

As long as I can remember, I have always felt passionate about swimming. Whether I’m playing around, going to swim practice, or racing at a big swim meet, I’m always at the pool. Since I spent so much time around the water, becoming a lifeguard looked like the obvious job choice for me. After about a year of guarding, my supervisor asked me if I would be interested in starting to teach swim lessons. I was apprehensive at the thought of it, because I hadn’t worked with kids much before. It sounded

Over the 12-year span of my swimming career, I faithfully trusted my coaches when they told me competitive swimming would take me places. At six-years-old, I dreamed of competing in the Summer Olympics, winning a gold medal, and seeing my face on the cover of a Wheaties box. However, at six-years-old, I never envisioned the mental and physical roller coaster that would define my future in the sport. I would experience numerous mental blocks and physical plateaus; I would sometimes go months and

Over the summer I decided to kill the 75 days by swimming again –a sport I haven’t touched, let alone thought about, in the past 2 years. At first my swims were leisurely because I barely remembered how to kick and breathe, but after a couple of sessions my unused muscles remembered and swimming was as easy as breathing, minus my endurance and speed. Once this hurdle was passed another quickly appeared, my need for being better. Signing up for the local swim team was possibly one of the best and