Swimming: My Life
I first got in the pool when I was one.
I went with my dad on a Sunday morning, and didn't use armbands or anything, I could just do it.
I was so amused by the water and the ripples and the splashing that my dad taught me the basics of how to swim and then I joined the Maindy Centre swimming club, the Squid Flyers.
They did the whole training thing and I went though the different groups until I reached the top at age seven. We had a few competitions and by this time I had already found my best stroke, butterfly. During one of my races a scout, Nikki from Cardiff City Swimming Club, noticed me and after the race she asked me to attend the trials to get into the club. I was so thrilled and I wanted to go for it.
I turned up for the audition and they asked me to do a length of each stroke so they could see my talent. And then I had to wait, I had to wait for a letter telling me if I had got into the club or not. I did, and I was jumping for joy.
I started training with them in the bottom-but-one group as Cardiff had a lot of older people compared to squids. Every three months I got moved up a group because I was excelling at every training session.
It got to February and I was nine. They had chosen me to represent Great Britain in Nantes (France). The competition was on my birthday, and on the ferry on the way there we had cake and a little party before all the swimming business came into it and we had to be all serious and prepared.
At the pool our team was chanting:
"Everywhere we go, people want to know,
Who we are, where we come from,
So we tell them, we are Cardiff,
Might mighty Cardiff
And if they can’t hear us, we’ll shout a little louder
Louder
Louder
LOUDER!"
We were all in the spirit and at the opening of the competition we all had to stand around the edge of the pool and every team had a chance to sing their national anthem. We were waving flags and towels with the Welsh dragon on them. The atmosphere was amazing!
After the competition on Saturday morning, they took us to the town to go shopping?where we all met up at the castle for lunch and were all playing tag. The coaches called us over and they started singing happy birthday and gave me a card that all of them had signed.
I did all the races and our team won the meet and got £1000 and a trophy. I won most of my races and brought home?seven medals. I and my best friend at the time (Sean) won Best Girl and Best Boy prizes.
I went to France the next?two years as well, and brought home medals. My mum and dad were so proud that I found something I love.
In the summer I was 13 and they had chosen me to go to Stuttgart (Germany) to represent GB again. This time it was much more competitive and even the Chinese had come over to compete. But everyone was still so friendly and at the start of the competition we sang the national anthems again.
But the best part of the pool in Germany is that it was an outside pool and it was in the summer so it was all sunny and hot and it made everyone happy. They only bad thing about the sun was when you did backstroke, you couldn't see.
My best stroke was still butterfly, it always had been and it was even faster than front crawl. I won all the butterfly races for my age group and I came in the top?five for the individual medleys. I came home with?five medals and a nice tan.
I went to Germany again for the next?two years. But before the last time, I suffered from a shoulder injury which stopped me swimming for?eight months. But I still stuck to it, trying my hardest to keep up with everyone else, having physiotherapy and heat pads.
I also broke my wrist in school. But I managed to go to Germany and win the butterfly race for the last time. But just before we went to Germany in 2005, we cancelled one of our training sessions so we could have a pool party for me as I was 'retiring', as my coach called it.
I was retiring due to my shoulder and school and a family crisis had happened. It was a very emotional time, but the party was a blast. And Germany was the perfect way to top it all off.
Thanks to Nikki, she made me feel like I was like David Davies.
LINKS :: Cardiff Leisure Services :: Cardiff International Pool :: Sport Directory
