It is hard to believe but less than six months ago Camille could not even keep herself afloat. At the end of April she could keep herself above water, but couldn't swim without stopping and definitely did not like the thought of "diving" in the water. After a few races she got the hang of backstroke and took off quite a bit of time from her first race. By Championships, she could swim without stopping and finished in 15th place in both of her races! There were 17 swimmers in backstroke and 22 in freestyle. She's disappointed she didn't get a medal, which is awarded to the top three finishers, but she still has another two years to swim in this age group, so it is very possible she could eventually earn one. Even if she doesn't, just having her be able to swim is such a relief.
Camryn competed in her fifth championship on the freestyle and medley relay teams and individually in backstroke, freestyle and breaststroke. Camryn's age group boasts a lot of swimmers in the individual events. She had 68 swimmers in backstroke, 70 in freestyle and 57 in breaststroke. With that many girls it is very hard to get a ribbon (top 16) let alone a medal. While she had good club times, and was seeded in the top third, we knew it would be virtually impossible for her to win a medal in backstroke and freestyle. Her freestyle relay team finished 7th out of 9 teams. Next, she swam in backstroke where she finished 18th. She set a personal best time in freestyle and finished 22nd. Even though she didn't place in those events she swam well and was pleased with her efforts. The race she was putting everything on was breaststroke. In her first race of the season she finished third, but after that she finished most of her races in first, sometimes by as much as five seconds. She knew she had a good chance at a medal, but we didn't quite know how good of a chance. When the seedings came out she was seeded second, which put her in the last heat against the fastest girls. The picture above is of that race. At this point in the race she was fourth and I was so anxious for her. Breaststroke is her favorite event and I knew she would be devastated if she didn't earn a medal. Of course the race came down to the wire and although I knew it was close, I just kept praying for a top three finish. The coach was sure she'd finished top three, and thought it might be second, but it was just too close. The other thing we had to worry about were the other heats. Sometimes, a swimmer has an awesome time in another heat and can knock out you out of contention; I hoped that wasn't the case here, but now we had to wait until the results were posted. In the meantime, she had to get ready for her last event - the medley relay. By the time her team finished, they got third, we were exhausted! Finally, after what seemed like forever, they posted the results. Camryn did not post her best time, but did enough to finish FIRST. It is her first Gold medal and boy was she excited and I was so proud!