As someone who started swimming at a young age, I have developed from a young age group swimmer to the top of international contender.  From the start of my career, I was not a very proficient swimmer.  None of the strokes came naturally to me and I wasn't competitive with other swimmers in my age group.  After I started swimming year-round with a club team, I began to see improvements- but I was never winning races or posting fast times.  It wasn't until I was about 14 years old that things started to change for me.  The biggest difference maker was my work ethic.  I decided that I wanted to be the best swimmer I could be.  I began to change my bad habits.  I improved my practice attendance, listened to everything my coaches told me, and challenged myself with short term goals in practice.  With the help of my coaches, I also created realistic long term goals for the end of each season.  I continued and built on this approach through the rest of high school and everything turned around.  I started winning races, posting fast times, and even began to be noticed by some top college programs.  I eventually earned a scholarship at the University of Michigan and continued to excel as many of my goals came to fruition.  I graduated in 2006 and have been swimming as a professional ever since. 

I have learned many things from my swimming experiences that can be applied to  life.  The value of hard work, personal sacrifice, preparation and commitment are just a few of the important things I have learned.  I have also learned to deal with success and encourage others as a result.  I enjoy talking to kids and sharing my story with them because I feel many of them can relate to the struggles I had early in my career.  Another group of people that I can relate to is asthmatics.  I was diagnosed with asthma at the age of ten.  It is also something that I have struggled with for a number of years, but in the end it is something that has made me a stronger competitor.  Because asthma is often viewed as a disadvantage in athletics, I use it as motivation to work harder in practice.  Instead of giving up and settling for complacency, I make a conscious decision to work hard to make up for it.  I know how people with asthma feel and I enjoy sharing my story with them because I feel like it encourages them to leave their comfort zone and use their imagination.  Imagination is an extremely powerful tool on the road to success.

I also enjoy talking to swimmers of all ages about freestyle techniques and training tips.  I consider myself exclusively a freestyle swimmer and I am one of only a couple swimmers in history who have broken 50 seconds in the 100m freestyle and 15:00 minutes in the 1500m freestyle.  I have a great understanding of the mechanics of the stroke and how to train for any freestyle event.