By: Jingwei Zhao

Four years ago, my friends and I qualified for our county’s 8 and under men’s 100 medley relay. Being seated in the A division, the highest division in the county, we were up against some incredibly tough competition, but the four of us simply could not be beaten. Despite my being only seven years old, my three teammates were some of the best swimmers of our age in the county.

I was assigned to swim the last 25-meter freestyle leg, and even though I was not the fastest, my friends gave me a far lead. After jumping into the pool, I swam my hardest to finish the relay, and as soon as I touched the wall, I knew that we qualified. However, my friends and I did not realize how much this meant to our team, and we were just happy to have won.

After winning first place, we were given the opportunity to swim in the All-Star relays, where the team with the best relay throughout every division would compete. Luckily for us, all our A division competition was out of the window, and we were seated first in the event. On the day of the swim meet, I personally did worse than my personal best time by a bit under one second. However, due to my friends once again giving me such a big lead, I was able to get the job done and secure first place in the whole county. Back then, the four of us did not know how significant this was for us.

Once I got out of the pool, we four waited to receive our plaques. For a little bit of context, the second and third place teams would each get a small medal, and we would receive a large plaque. After posing for the camera, we headed to IHOP for breakfast, where the food was delicious. I ordered mac and cheese with an Oreo milkshake. That morning was incredible, and it is still one of the most joyous moments I have ever had in my time as a swimmer. Unfortunately, the years to follow did not hold the All-Star relays due to Covid-19. During the summer of 2020, the season was cancelled, which resulted in me never summer swimming as an eight-year-old.

In 2021, the four of us were back in the same age group again, and we were ready for the relays. However, COVID was still taking its toll, and despite the normal swim meets recommencing, the relays did not. Last year, All-Star relays finally resumed, but because I was the only fast ten years old, and my teammates were in the 11–12-year-old age group, my nine-year-old teammates and I were not very fast and were unable to qualify for All-Star relays. This year, I moved up into the 11-12 age group as an 11-year-old, and the rest of my friends are twelve. Now that we were all finally back in one group, we had an opportunity to qualify for the All-Star relays and win.

However, one of the teams in our division was strong, and one of their former swimmers qualifying for the Olympics. The only swim meet we lost this season was against this team, and their 11–12-year-old age group was strong. On the day of the relay qualifications, we had to face this team, and it was incredibly close. For a bit of background, the order of the strokes in the medley are backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle. The relay we were swimming in was the men’s 200-meter medley, so rather than everyone swimming only 25 meters, all four of us would be swimming 50s. In the backstroke leg, we were able to gain a two- to three-second lead on everyone.

Dropping in my breaststroke leg, I was able to keep our lead. However, the stronger team’s selection for butterfly was the third fastest boy in the county for this age group. Despite our butterflyer still being one of the best in the county, he was no match for the stronger team’s butterflyer, and we lost the lead by a second.

Luckily, our freestyler was the fastest in the county as an eight and under in 2019, and despite him no longer being the very best, he is still one of the best, and was able to catch up to the other team’s freestyler. In the final 25 of the relays, our freestyler got the better of our competition on the turn, and we kept that lead until the end of the race, which we won by over a second.

Being older and understanding the magnitude of this event, the four of us were overjoyed at winning the relay, as that meant we qualified for the All-Star relays. At our team lunch at Panda Express, we ate like kings, and headed home feeling great. Last Sunday, we headed to the pool that hosted the All-Star relays, and we were seated fourth. After learning about the seven-second difference between us and the team seated first, we knew that we stood no chance of winning, so we were only going for the third spot, as then we would at least get a medal. The pressure was building, and we were all very tense. Once the people swimming backstroke got into the water to start the relay, we were all nervous and hyped at the same time, with our only goal being to get third place.

Going into the breaststroke leg, in which I swam in, we were in third. However, I was going against the second in the county during the leg, and despite my efforts, we dropped to fifth. Our butterflyer kept us in the spot, and now it was up to our freestyle to get us a top three spot. Coming into the turn, we caught up to fourth, and coming out, we were barely slower than the third fastest team at the time. However, our freestyler is tremendously fast, and we caught up to third place during the last 15 meters of the relay. Seeing how close we were to third place, me and my other two friends started cheering as hard as we could. Once we touched the wall, it was over. We got third place, thus receiving a medal.

Despite not getting first, we were still overjoyed to get that third-place spot, and it was tradition for us to take a group picture of our success. After leaving, all but one of the four of us went to IHOP to celebrate. As usual, IHOP was fantastic, and we ate so much food that it was impressive we even finished it. After messing around, we headed home, feeling great about ourselves. On the way back home, I started to realize how much this meant for our little group. After heading our ways from elementary to middle school, we barely had the chance to talk to each other, and this summer season brought us all together, something which I am very grateful for. I missed my friends, and it was so refreshing to have all of them back.