"Water Drinking Workout"

I just wanted to tell you of something that happened to me a few days ago in Beijing that has meant more to me than anything else.

I was in a van with about 10 people from the swim team headed over to a Speedo press conference last week. On the ride over I knew some of the swimmers but not all of them. The girl sitting next to me asked me if I remembered being a guest coach at a national team training camp at the Olympic Training Center for girls age 12-15 way back in 1997. I remembered it well. She started to tell a story, and I knew exactly where she was headed with it.

At one of the practices that weekend there was one of the 12 year olds who got altitude sickness and could not swim the workout at one of the sessions. I remember her being so distraught sitting on the pool deck against the wall, and all of the national team coaches were ignoring her. There was no question that this young girl wanted to be in the workout...she was not wimping out. I brought her a glass of water and told her that her workout was to drink 8 of those glasses before the swim practice ended. I told her I would be watching her and checking to make sure she finished her "water drinking workout". I can vividly remember the moment, because it made her laugh, and it gave her a goal.

I never knew her name (or at least I could not remember it all of these years), but on the van ride over last week she repeated the story and said that she was that girl. If you have watched the swimming in Beijing she is the breastroker in the 100 (Megan Jendrick). She used to be Megan Quann who rocked the breastroke events in either Sydney or Athens (I cannot remember).

Of course this event did not alter her world, but the fact that it was something she remembered was so cool to me. When we feel for someone else's hurt and try to reach out, it is remembered. You have all done that for me at times, and I do not forget. Thanks mucho!
Sheila