So much of who I am today comes from competing in the pool. My experiences in training, with teammates, and in competition all led to who I am right here, right now.

There are days I take it all for granted. I take my confident self to the pool to swim laps, using the same skills (although not quite as fast) that I honed during years of competition, and dive in without even a thought of how fortunate I was to get to this point.

Then there are days when I remind myself that generations of women grew up without the same opportunities I was afforded. Not long before I started swimming competitively, young girls didn't grow up with any expectations of competing in sports. 

Winds of change

I grew up when winds of change were already in place. Title IX passed two years before I was born, laying a foundation for more opportunity and equality in sports. Universities were now required to offer women's sports, and with that, funding that had long been reserved for men's sports only.

 

Read the full blog here: http://gogglesandflipturns.com/women-in-sports-day/

 

By: Laura Healy

A former competitive swimmer, current swim coach and swim team parent, Laura blogs about all things swimming. She loves sharing her passion for competitive swimming, but she also knows that navigating this sport can be confusing. So she created Goggles & Flip Turns to help swim team parents who are diving headfirst into the pool, wondering what the heck this sport is all about. Read her blog at gogglesflipturns.com.