A swimming story

So, my daughter, Emily, is a swimmer...as most of you already know.  She has had a number of swim meets lately and I am just so proud of her.  She turned nine years old in December and that, in turn, bumped her up to a new age level.  This was really hard for her to swallow, since she was taking gold medals at the state level and winning her heats easily as an 8 year old.  Now she was at the bottom of the heap again and had a hard time with that.  I sat her down and told her that this year was not for winning, necessarily, but for bettering her personal best times.  That way, next year when she is 10 she can rule the pool once again.  This seemed to help her a bit and she went to her next meet prepared mentally.  That enabled her to drop her times by huge amounts!!  That day was a turning point for her.  She has gone out and has decided that she wants to win again and is making her races very close!  I am so proud of her!

Now, this past Tuesday, there was a meet at Wyandotte Middle School.  The strokes for the night were Freestyle and Breaststroke.  When her time to swim came for the 50 freestyle she was put in a pretty slow heat.  This made it easy for her to take first in her heat and by a huge margin, as well.  When she got out of the pool, after everyone was done, some girls from the other team came up to her and told her "You suck!".  She told me that her response was to laugh and walk away.  She also told me that she thought it was awesome that they said that.  I asked her why she thought that and her response to me was..." it means I'm great, Mom!  They are just jealous! "  What a fabulous attitude for a 9 year old!  If only I would have had that at her age.  I can't even imagine how far she will go with that amazing attitude!!  The sky is the limit I say!!

Here are the links to her two races.....(you might turn the volume down)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tymjo4lfFj0  She is the one in the yellow cap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtO1Ves3m0A  Yellow cap again.  Teamate is in lane one and she really tried to beat her.  Turns out she thought she was from the other team.  oops. lol  Oh yeah, and that other girl, blake, is almost 11 :)