@patrickshawhq: She missed the Olympic trials cut by about 0.05 twice. Then the meet ended, and she got one more swim. My daughter Anna, a two-time Olympic trials qualifier who swam at Stanford, told me how she qualified the second time. She had driven alone to a meet in the middle of nowhere in California. She swam prelims and finals and missed the time by about 0.05 both times, racing against other swimmers. After the meet concluded, the organizers offered a time trial for swimmers who were close to the qualifying times. That meant swimming against the clock with nobody else there, which is about the worst environment there is. They were packing the meet up and leaving the timer out just for her. The qualifying period closed three hours later, and after that there would be no more times. She asked herself: what am I going to do, say no to a chance? A spot in the pool is a spot in the pool. She dove in, and it sounds like a made-up story, but she qualified by 1/100th of a second. She flew out to Olympic trials the week after with her whole team and watched her best friend qualify for the Paris Olympics. Watch the full conversation with Anna on YouTube. Link in bio. Follow for more conversations like this.

patrickshawhq

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Sunday 01 November 2026 19:10:56 GMT