“Ummmm. Kelsey, we are going to need to take some time off of this,” I said to Kelsey Tripp, a student from Winterport attending Hampden Academy, as she finished up two lengths of the pool in a training early last school year.
She had clocked in at about a minute and a half.
Anyone who has coached a sport where you’re racing the clock knows that seconds matter. Even hundredths of a second matter.
Just take a look at when Michael Phelps won his seventh gold medal at the 2008 Olympics by 0.01 of a second in the 100-meter butterfly against Milorad Cavic of Serbia.
The photo finish showed the depth of the bend of their fingertips touching the wall — marking one of the greatest races in all of Olympic history.
When I made that statement to Kelsey back in September 2014, I thought shaving 10 to 15 seconds off of her time was a reasonable request. I knew we had our work cut out for us. Little did I know how she would grow.
Who is Kelsey? Now 18 years old, she is a bright-eyed young lady who enjoys life just as any teenager. She loves hanging out with her friends and can be quite the jokester. She has an infectious laugh.
She also has special needs.
When I first met Kelsey in middle school, she was unable to even put her face in the water. She goofed off in class to avoid the work she’d need to do to improve her swimming.
Eventually she’d make it to one of the highest levels of swim competition on an international stage. Her story is one of trial, perseverance and triumph.
Special Olympics gives people with intellectual disabilities a chance to train and compete in various sports. There’s a local, state, national and world game level. Kelsey is fortunate to have made it to the top.
The governing body for Special Olympics is the International Olympic Committee — the same as the Olympics and Paralympics. Special Olympics athletes are supposed to train for a minimum of eight weeks prior to each competition.
Kelsey swam weekly throughout the school year and, over time, slowly plugged away at developing her stroke. In 2013, Kelsey was selected to attend the 2014 National Summer Games for Special Olympics.
She competed in aquatics and won two gold medals and two silver medals. Her favorite stroke at the time was the backstroke. She had a beautiful backstroke and really enjoyed competing in the 50-meter race.
So when she qualified at nationals for the World Games, she was once again excited to showcase her love of the backstroke. We began training for the competition early in the 2014-2015 school year.
But Kelsey was still hesitant to swim the freestyle, especially with the proper breathing technique, flip turns and diving off the blocks, even though she had showcased it just a few months before in New Jersey at nationals.
Day by day, though, Kelsey built up her endurance and skills. We also added in some personal strength training at the UMaine fitness center. Building strength was key to her ultimate success.
Throughout her training this past year for the World Games, Kelsey often spoke of wanting to meet Phelps. She was inspired by him.
During the Special Olympics USA Training Camp in October 2014, Kelsey and her team were given swim caps signed by Phelps. Kelsey swam with the cap each time she trained.
Soon, her motivation for the World Games became more competitive. Not only was she putting more effort into her workouts, but she was motivated by the clock.
My original goal to take 10 to 15 seconds off her time with the freestyle became a reality. In fact, she regularly began to smash her original time by coming in just over a minute — nearly 30 seconds faster than when she began.
As her hometown coach, I became less concerned with her swimming and began to focus more on her transformation into a gracious athlete. No matter what place she came home with, I wanted Kelsey to know more than ever that I was proud of her accomplishments.
And, more than my acknowledgement, I wanted Kelsey to be proud of herself.
This became the most important aspect of my training with her before she left for Los Angeles to compete in the World Games.
During the local and state Special Olympics swim meets earlier in the year, Kelsey preferred the backstroke to the freestyle. But over time the training kicked in, and the freestyle became easier. Her new goal became to try to beat a minute for each 50-yard competition — both at races and in training.
With this last and final goal, we focused on starts and finishes, dives and flip turns — at Lura Hoit Pool and the Bangor Y — in the weeks before she would board the plane to Los Angeles.
That’s when her times began to break the minute mark. In her very last swim practice at the Bangor Y, she had a hint of motivation from the thought of meeting Phelps himself.
She was concerned what he would think of her swimming, and, just then, in a flash, she dove into the pool and swam her best practice 50-yard freestyle, clocking in at 54.71 seconds.
As I said goodbye and good luck to Kelsey, I knew that I had given her the tools to be a successful and gracious Special Olympics athlete at the World Games in Los Angeles. Now it was time to watch the events unfold on ESPN and wait to hear the results from her Special Olympics USA coaches. We had communicated often throughout the year on Kelsey’s training trials and triumphs.
Then it happened. I got the text.
I was sitting in a restaurant with some friends in Bangor, and I screamed so loud it made my friends jump in their seats. Then the tears came rushing down my face as I tried to share with my husband and closest friends that Kelsey had won the gold medal.
And, not only had she won the gold medal, but she clocked in at 45.48 seconds — a whole two seconds off her preliminary time. Just the mere fact that she had a personal best was so unbelievably amazing, let alone being the fastest in the 50-meter freestyle in her division in the whole world.
Her improved times at the Special Olympics were even more impressive given the fact that she was swimming even farther than in practice back in Maine. The Special Olympics swimmers compete in meters, which are slightly longer than Maine’s pool lengths, which are in yards.
I later found out that the motivation behind Kelsey practically cutting her time in half for the 50-meter freestyle was the fact that she had indeed met her inspiration Phelps and his fiancee. She got to see him dive, swim and do flip turns. She even got to take a team picture with him.
Kelsey also earned a personal record of 58.34 seconds for the 50-meter backstroke and won the silver medal. Again, she broke a minute. And her 4×50-meter relay with her teammates was also a success. They came in at 2:55.54 for a fifth-place finish.
Most important, I am proud of the person that Kelsey has become through this incredible experience. She now has a new favorite stroke — freestyle. And she wants to help others with swimming and Special Olympics in general. Her confidence is clear, and she’s ready to take on new challenges that come her way.
As her hometown coach, I think Kelsey has learned an important lesson in life — that hard work pays off.
Andrea Lee teaches adapted physical education and physical education at Reeds Brook Middle School in Hampden. She is the Special Olympics head coach for the school district.