My sister had already swam the two hardest events and I could tell she was tired. She had one event left: a relay. This relay was worth double points and their team needed it to do well if they were going to win the meet. I went up to my sister and said, “Are you ready?”

She just looked at me and I knew she wanted to go home but she said, “Yeah.”

Knowing she wasn't motivated I told her that she only had one race left and that I would do the same events during my season and it was hard but the meet wasn't won yet so she had to focus and do her best on this relay. 

When she told me to stop talking to her I knew that she was ready. 

She got up on the block while their first swimmer was coming into the wall. Her best this season was a 58 and she needed to go at least one to two seconds faster if they were going to place high enough to win the meet. She dove in and as she broke out I knew that she was going to go fast enough. She swam the whole race and hit the wall. She went a 57 and the rest of the relay went fast enough to drop 10 seconds off their seed time and place high enough to win the meet. When she came over I said to her, “I knew you could do it.” 

She responded with, “Thanks.”

 After that I knew she would want to keep swimming.