No Limits Read Online Free

went.
    My best time of the three turned out to be 2:09. Bob was obviously disappointed. After the 2:04.68 from the year before, he thought I was going to do 2:05, at least. Maybe, he told me, you could even break two minutes.
    In the back of his mind, Bob was holding out the possibility, no matter how remote it seemed, that I could finish in the top two at the Olympic Trials that summer in Indianapolis and make the Olympic team. At that point, I had produced nothing to suggest that the 2000 Olympics were truly possible. This did not deter Bob. He believed in me, completely.
    The way swim meets work, the heats are usually in the morning or early afternoon, and the finals at night. When I was a teenager, the heats would pretty much always go off in front of just a few people in the stands, typically parents, brothers and sisters, other coaches. I have come to like a noisy crowd. Early that afternoon in Federal Way, there was almost nobody in the stands.
    I went 1:59.6.
    That broke the age-group record for fifteen-and sixteen-year-olds. I was still only fourteen.
    That night I came back and raced the 200 fly again. I finishedin 1:59.02, behind only Stephen Parry of Great Britain and Malchow.
    Afterward, I had my first interview. I was asked, did you think you could break two minutes in the 200 fly? Here’s what I said: My coach told me I could do it.
    It’s after that 1:59.6, Bob likes to say, that he knew I would make the Olympic team, maybe sooner than later. I had no idea. I was, after all, fourteen.
    The day after that, I set another age-group record in the 400 IM, lowering my time in that race by seven seconds, to 4:24.
    The next day, I wasn’t swimming in any finals. Sightseeing? No way. Into the pool I went.
    We got home from Federal Way on a school day. My mom, who was at work, had put a large banner saying, “Congratulations,” on the lawn and had trimmed it in red, white, and blue. Bob, who had brought me back to the house, took down the entire display. When she got home, Mom was furious. Bob was unmoved. It was a matter, Bob said, of tempering expectations. Best to keep everything in perspective. Bob asked my mom, “What are you going to do when he wins nationals? He got third. If he wins, are you going to buy him a car? If he sets a world record, what, a house? You can’t get excited about every step. There are so many steps. We’re on, like, step 200 of 3,000. How are we going to keep going?”
    Bob has, without question, helped refine my intense drive and dedication. He has also, without question, helped me believe that anything is possible. Two seconds faster than the world record? Doesn’t matter. Three seconds faster? Doesn’t matter. You can swim as fast as you want. You can do anything you want. You just have to dream it, believe it, work at it, go for it.
    I wrote the sheet that lay out my goals for 2008 a few weeks after coming back from those 2007 world championships in Melbourne. That meet in Australia had been one of my bestever. I won seven gold medals and set five world records, including that 4:06.22 in the 400 IM.
    In the 100 free, I wanted in the Olympic year of 2008 to go 47.50.
    200 free: 1:43.5.
    100 fly: 49.5.
    200 fly: 1:51.1.
    200 IM: 1:53.5.
    And the 400 IM: 4:05 flat.
    There’s more on the sheet, other races as well as split times for every single race.
    But these were races I was likely to swim at the Olympics.
    In writing that I wanted to go 4:05 in 2008, I knew full well that was ambitious. That would be more than a full second better than I had ever done before.
    And yet: 3:07.
    Which meant 4:03.
    â€¢   •   •
    I started swimming when I was seven.
    Mom put me in a stroke clinic taught by one of her good friends, Cathy Lears.
    â€œI’m cold,” I remember saying.
    And, “I have to go to the bathroom.”
    And, “Can’t I just sit here and watch the other kids? I’ll stay here by the