a story that no one asked for: when i was 12 I took part in this swimming gala. My parents were so excited and my dad’s best friend and his daughter also came to see me. There were a lot of people in my age group so we had heats and I didn’t qualify in one, and-

-lost the other two. I felt really miserable and I felt like I let everyone down. All the kids I swam with knew how much I loved to swim and how important this was for me so they all came to comfort me. I really did everything to stop myself from crying then because it felt-

- I’ve tried really hard to do something with my swimming. Last year, there was no one in my age group so I asked to be bumped up to the next age group and the other girl started crying I’m not exaggerating. I teach kids how to swim now and this is not me flexing or anything-