9 
When I look back on my life, the years I spent at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs were some of the best. As my high school graduation was quickly approaching, I felt that I needed a change. Since I had already turned professional, I decided the training center was the right place for me to be challenged and grow as an athlete. The Olympic Training Center is basically a Disneyland for athletes.
It’s this amazing facility where Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls can live and train full-time. It’s impossible not to become a better athlete while training there. For swimmers, there’s a beautiful fifty-meter pool, a hot tub and a cold tub for recovering, and really anything you would need. One of my favorite places at the OTC was the Sports Medicine Clinic, where the staff would work on my shoulders after practice and I could get massages whenever I wanted.
And then there’s the food! The food in the cafeteria is some of the healthiest and most delicious in the world. They use whole foods and lean meats, with no processed sugars in sight. Avocados were traded like gold, and you had to know the right people to get one. Waffle Sunday was always my favorite day in the OTC cafeteria. After a long week of training, having a giant waffle was the perfect way to end the week.
At my homeschool graduation! I was extra excited because I was asked to speak as valedictorian.
I was eighteen, and the OTC was essentially my college experience, although instead of attending classes, I went to countless swim practices and weight training sessions, yoga and Pilates, and sports medicine. I had the opportunity to try new sports, too, and I was always happy to meet all the athletes outside of the swim world and hear about what made them passionate about their sport.
In 2010, I graduated from high school, competed in my second World Championships in the Netherlands, explored Paris for a few days with my two best friends, Kelley Becherer and Anna Eames, and from there went to my new home in Colorado Springs.
I had been attending swim camps there since I was twelve, but on my first night there as a resident, my suitcase still packed from Worlds and Paris, I was scared. This was where I would be living. This was it. I was on my own. That night I went out to get pizza for dinner, and it was my last taste of cheesy, greasy food for a long time.
I swear the first few weeks were designed to kill us . . . either that or the altitude really got to me. The OTC, based in Colorado Springs, is 6,557 feet above sea level and is meant to create a more difficult training atmosphere. Some days I’d be winded from just walking from my room to the pool. All I did during those first few weeks was eat, sleep, and swim. It was intense and exhausting, and I loved every second. I loved competing with the other Para-athletes, and I didn’t want to let my new coach, Dave “Davo” Denniston, down. In fact, during the second week, I didn’t even tell my coach I had bronchitis, because I didn’t want to miss a single practice.
I worked hard on my room to make it feel like a home away from home. I had a huge zebra picture above my bed, a bunch of circle mirrors strategically placed on one wall, and blackout curtains to block the sun for my recovery naps between practices. My only job was to swim—and swim fast. I quickly learned that the workouts would only get harder. We had something called “hell week” every month, where our practices would intensify and we were all pushed to our limits both mentally and physically. At the end of each hell week, my friend Anna Johannes and I would treat ourselves to a chocolate feast at the Melting Pot. Sometimes, looking forward to that tradition was the only thing that kept me going during hell week.
My dad took this picture of me diving into a race. I’ve been blessed to have such a supportive family who tried to come to as many swim meets as they were able to.
I will never forget my coach’s birthday. Davo Denniston had been my teammate in Beijing, and now he got to yell sets at me on a daily basis. On his thirty-second birthday he made us swim a main set of thirty-two 200s at an all-out sprint. That is 6,400 meters of pure pain in less than two hours. I went directly to my bedroom afterward and crashed until I had to get up for weights. Our weight-training session wasn’t much easier. For one hour, my team and I cycled through a circuit workout nonstop. At each station we had one minute to do whatever workout was in front of us, and this went on for one long hour, with the “Happy Birthday” song playing in the background. After that workout, dripping in sweat, our weight coach Amanda took my whole team out back, where Davo was casually sitting on a lounge chair in the bed of a white pickup truck. He was holding a fancy drink and wearing a silly birthday party hat. His idea of a birthday treat was for us to push the truck around the entire OTC. Every time he blew his whistle, we had to sing “Happy Birthday” to him. Once we got back to our original spot, he surprised all my teammates and me by taking us out for ice cream instead of making us swim our second practice. I was exhausted, and my aching shoulders were so thankful for a break that I almost cried.
6:30 a.m.: Walk to the pool, stretch, change, and mentally prep for practice.
7:00 a.m.: Jump into the pool.
9:00 a.m.: Climb out of the pool.
9:15 a.m.: Relax muscles in hot tub.
10:00 a.m.: Head to “the caf” for breakfast.
11:00 a.m.: Nap.
2:00 p.m.: Start weight training.
3:00 p.m.: Finish weight training and grab a snack.
3:30 p.m.: Start second swim practice (usually full of sprints).
6:00 p.m.: Eat dinner.
7:00 p.m.: Get a massage from Sports Medicine and work out shoulders.
8:00 p.m.: Do yoga.
9:30 or 10:00 p.m.: Fall into bed.
6:15 a.m.: Wake up and do it all over again!
It was always hectic, but I couldn’t imagine a better place. There were so many amazing things at the training center. Lining the walls leading to the pool are pictures of all sorts of athletes with their medals. Inspired by these strong individuals, I wanted to get my picture up there too. (My picture ended up being added after London, and I was so excited!) The OTC became my home, and the people there became my second family. Flower, the cook, knew my egg order before I arrived at the grill; I went to movie premieres with my teammates; on Easter we had a huge egg hunt across the entire campus; and we had game nights and planned other fun outings together.
My favorite day of the week was Sunday. Not only was it Waffle Day, but we had the day off from training, which made everyone happy. I’d spend hours in the cafeteria, talking with my friends and teammates. Despite our different backgrounds, we all had similar goals and were training hard for London. The Olympic Training Center was exactly what I needed at that time in my life, and Colorado easily stole my heart. I really grew up during my time there. Colorado gave me my confidence back. I knew I was training harder than anyone I would be competing against, and I was as prepared as I could be for the moment I would step onto the block in London 2012.
Permanently a part of the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.