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    Ulrich Ringleb 11.09.2021 14:13
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By Becky Short

(Reproduced from Swimming World, August 2001)

 

It was the most pressure-packed meet of my life.

Here I was, a freshman, swimming for Auburn at the Women’s NCAA swimming championships in Long Island, N.Y. Wow!

First of all, I had never been to New York, and just arriving in the Big Apple was exciting in itself. Although I knew we had a great team, I felt a little unsure about racing under the pressure I was feeling … pressure to swim my heart out for the team.

We were not even supposed to be in the hunt for the team title, but for the first two days of the three-day meet, we held a narrow lead. This was a meet of firsts for Auburn. It was the first time Auburn women had ever led at NCAAs – the first time every swimmer on the Auburn team had earned All-America honours – and when Maggie Bowen broke Summer Sanders’ record in the 200 IM, it marked the first time an Auburn woman had set an American record. We were sky-high! We felt it would last forever.

It didn’t. The last event of the third day’s prelims was the 400 Freestyle Relay. All we needed to do was place in the top eight to quality for finals. I was the lead-off swimmer, which made me even more tense and nervous than I had been. I needed to get us off to a strong start.

I gripped the block tightly for the start and leaned back slightly, loading my muscles to spring forward. It seemed the starter held us forever, and in anticipation of the start, I flinched forward. It must have been a millisecond before the starting horn went off – certainly not any longer – but flinch I did.

To my horror, the horn beeped not once, but three times. Beep-beep-beep! So many things swirled through my head when I heard those three ominous beeps. "Maybe it wasn’t me", I told myself. As I slowly swam back to the start, all I could think was, "Please don’t let it be me, please don’t let it be me", over and over again.

I crawled out of the water, not wanting to face what might come next. Still hoping I might not be disqualified, my eyes avoided the official who was approaching me – closer, closer, almost in slow motion. I can’t remember his exact words, but I clearly remember one word: "disqualified". Immediately, I fell apart inside and ran away. Finding a place to hide, I sat down and wept.

One of my coaches, Kim Brakin, found me and told me that I needed to return to the team. That was the last place I wanted to be. How could I face them? How could they love me after such an awful thing? I had let them down so terribly.

But when I returned, I found comfort, love and encouragement. Sure, they were upset. Everyone was. We were trying to make history by shooting for the title. But instead of rejection – which I felt I deserved – I found acceptance. I was embraced and encouraged and forgiven by everyone there as well as later by everyone back home in the Auburn family.

When Coach (Dave) Marsh first took me aside, I was too ashamed to look into his eyes. This man had worked so hard to build a winning team, and one little flinch on my part had set us back even further from the mark. All I could say was, "I’m sorry". He reminded me to put my trust in God.

The end of the meet was bittersweet. We finished in fourth place – higher than any Auburn women’s swimming team before us. But we did not win.

For me, that meet proved to be a huge learning experience. My mum and dad gave me an inspirational card every day to encourage me. Spring nationals was only two weeks away, so I had to pick myself up and move on. By the grace of God, I was able not only to lead off a relay there, but also to swim fast enough to qualify for the World University Games.

Becky Short, who will be a sophomore at Auburn University this fall, is a member of the USA’s World University Games team.

 

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