Franklin Dudley Arthur - Relentless spirit: the unconventional raising of a champion

To my earthly mother and father,
My greatest fear in life is that I will never be able to be the kind of parent you were to me. There is no greater joy in my life than knowing that no matter where life takes us and what it may bring, nothing could ever separate me from your love.
Thank you.

R elentless...

Steady and persistent. Constant. Unyielding. Showing no signs of letup, no drop-off in intensity, severity, strength...

Theres something very Beyonc about the word, dont you think? Its empoweringso much so that Ive taken to writing it on my wrist before I compete. Its engraved on a silver ring I like to wear. Ive even got it printed on the band of my favorite pair of goggles.

Relentless...

It reminds me to keep on, moving ever forward, hard. But I dont need the reminder, really. Its how I swim, how I live my life, who I am. Seeing that word, writing it down... it just reinforces whats already there. It tells me to reach deep down for my very best, even when it feels like theres nothing left. Even when every muscle in my body is telling me Im done.

When Im in a hard place, I write it down.

When Im facing a challenge, I write it down.

When I get to that place where I could not have practiced any harder, smarter, longer, I write it down and move on to my dry-land workout, my evening swim, whatevers next on my schedule.

Relentless...

There are a lot of quotes on the Internet that talk about what it means to never give up, but those words dont do it for me. If thats what works for you, thats great. But I hear a phrase like Dont quit! and it gets me no closer to where I need to be. It tells me I can push ahead but stay on autopilot. It tells me I can get by on minimal effort. It tells me that good enough is good enough. But thats not me. A line like that, it might be fine if the goal is just to see things through, but thats never been my goal. My goal is to swim with every ounce of heart, every ounce of spirit I can muster. At all times. No matter what.

Relentless... I wear the word on my wrist, strap it to my head, keep it at my fingertips, at the ever-ready.

So I write it down. And just to make sure Im paying attention, I put it on the cover of my bookthe book you now hold in your hands.

Relentless spirit... because there is no letup, no drop-off, no quit in me until I touch the wall.

My Teddy Bear Moment

2009 DUEL IN THE POOLMANCHESTER, ENGLAND

Dear God: Please help me and Team USA do the best that we can do this weekend. Watch over us, help us, calm us. Wish me luck.

journal entry, written just before my first-ever national-team appearance

I was fourteen years old. Id traveled to Canada and Europe with the junior national team, but this was my first time swimming overseas for the national team. As big deals go, this was all the way up there. I was incredibly excited, but also nervous. Not incredibly nervous, I dont think, but a little worried how things would go. I had no idea what to expect.

Think about where you were in your life at fourteenthink about what you were doingand then put yourself in a situation where youre doing your thing alongside the very best in the world. Where youre caught in a great swirl of attention and excitement bigger than you could have ever imagined. Where youre way, way, way from your comfort zone. It wasnt like me to feel intimidated, but how can you not be intimidated by something like that? How can you keep your stomach from doing backflips? I mean, I was just a kida confident, world-class swimmer, but still just a kid.

The jumble of nerves that found me on this rookie trip had nothing to do with swimmingit felt to me like I had that part down. I loved swimming! That was the easy part. This wasnt me being arrogant or cocky. This was just me being mebeing honest with myself. I knew my times in the 100-meter freestyle were good enough to put me in the same pool as all those great swimmers. It was what was going on away from the pool that had me on edge. We were in Manchester, England, for the Duel in the Poola fun event that has as much to do with building team morale and encouraging a kind of camaraderie with swimmers from other countries as it does with competition. Its set up like the high school dual meets I loved to swim back home, but with an international us-versus-them twist to the competitionthe us being the United States team, and the them being a combined group from the British, German, and Italian national teams. (By the way, there were a lot of national-team swimmers who were not participating in this event, so it really was an honor for me to be there with this group.) Wed never lost one of these meets, I learned once I got over to England, but its not like it was a crazy-intense event. Still, there was a ton of pressure on me to do well, on top of the pressure I put on myself. Mostly, it was a team-building, team-bonding event, and a chance for us to see where we stood on the world stage without a whole lot on the line. A chance for me to see where I stood. And an incredible opportunity to race alongside swimmers Id been admiring since I was a little girl.

You have to realize, until I started swimming for the national team, I didnt pay a whole lot of attention to what the rest of the world was doing. USA Swimming was the bees knees, as far as I was concerned, so my focus was on the swimmers who would now be my teammates: Dana Vollmer, Natalie Coughlin, Rebecca Soni... these women were like rock stars to me.