My 3 Dedications And Me

As she resurfaced from under the water the noise around her suddenly filtered through her brain and the girl in the lane next to her leant on the ropes breathing heavily holding her hand out. "USA" Dolly heard people chanting as she took the girls hand "Well done!" Dolly said although she was sure she'd probably shouted it, "Great race, well done! Enjoy it! Fantastic time" the girl replied and Dolly watched her, she'd long since learnt to lip read.

"What?" Dolly asked "You won!" she laughed pointing to the screen and Dolly bobbed under the water before looking up and her eyes widened behind her goggles and she slammed her hand to her mouth! She pulled her hat and goggles off throwing them on the side as she punched her fist in the air. Dana swam under the ropes to her hugging her "Well done!" "Thank you!" Dolly pushed out grinning.

"Fuck me! She's done it! She's done it!" Ryan celebrated clapping shaking his head "Look at that time!" he yelled and the others nodded, Michael heard them chanting and looked up "Fuck!" he shouted clapping. He saw the time on the screen and grinned "World record!" he spoke to himself clapping his hands and he saw Bob Bowman across from him smiling clapping.

Dolly climbed out the pool and grabbed her accreditation, someone motioned her over to them and she stood behind Dana "I tried to go with her but I just couldn't hold the pace, she was just better than me on the night. Well done Dorothy!" Dana offered and Dolly smiled "Thank you! Well done and I'm sorry" she said and Dana laughed walking off and the woman started talking to her but she couldn't compute it.

"You didn't seem aware you'd won" she said and Dolly shook her head "I just didn't think I had, I just focused on the wall and when it came I didn't think I'd got there in any decent time" she admitted before she had to leave and she was in the warm down pool in no time at all. It seemed to fly past and she heard noise and realized it was Ryan's race, she watched him swim the relay shouting them on and she cheered as they touched the wall to come home first. She pulled her clothes on letting her long hair fall down loose as she saw Michael walking in, she fought the urge to wave at him and he grinned at her walking over trying to look casual.

"You listened to me! 55.84 seconds! A Gold and a new world record in your first Olympic race! I knew you could do it! Well done Phin, I'll see you later on but don't forget to warm down properly otherwise tomorrow will hurt!" he warned shaking her hand walking over to where a bouncing USA swim team was stood waiting for the guys relay to walk back in.

She heard it was time for her medal ceremony and she walked out noticing the crowd trying to find her parents but she couldn't, she heard her name and climbed on the podium waving before getting her medal and thanking them and collecting her flowers. "Congratulations on the new world record" the woman offered "Thank you!" Dolly grinned before waiting for the national anthem.

She went around with Dana Vollmer (who'd won silver) and Alicia Coutts (who'd won bronze) before she heard someone shout her name and her eyes widened, "Can we get an interview?" he asked and she nodded her hand over her mouth. "I've just managed to catch Dorothy Phoenix after the medal ceremony. Congratulations on winning gold in the 100m butterfly and setting a new world record of 55.84 seconds" "Thank you" she stumbled out.

He grinned at her "You didn't seem to be aware you'd won at all" "I wasn't! On the turn I knew I was up on some of the girls but I just locked my focus on the wall and I honestly felt like I wasn't going fast enough to get there. I felt just off the pace at the end" she admitted "Well if that's you off the pace" he laughed and she smiled. "Sorry this will sound totally fan girl and crazy but you are like my idol! As a kid I wanted to be just like you, dad had to point out I was a girl but it's just surreal...hi!" she laughed waving at him and he smiled waving back.

"Thank you! You seem to come from nowhere almost, nobody counted you as a threat for the final. You only made it through as fastest qualifier on both the heats and the semi finals in slower swims. I've already heard someone comment that to go from a first round swim off 58.35 to this isn't right, that you must be using something" he commented and she nodded. "It's my first big meet and I let the whole atmosphere get to me, my heat swim was awful and I just felt everything go wrong with me, my start, my turn, my stroke and I lost my breathing a lot with it. I was lucky to get through from that and I know it. My semi final was a bit better, I improved by just over a second and I felt things coming together, I felt better but I think my focus wasn't completely there, I was forcing the stroke and I just didn't settle in the pool at all. But my time in the other semi final would've left me in second place" she recalled.

"So you think the atmosphere affected you?" "Totally! I mean it's so loud and there's so many people, I'm not used to it and it just distracted me massively. Plus these girls are world class and I just struggled I think to force my mind to focus on my job and not them! I think, well I know my focus was a lot stronger for today. I came out focused and ready and I just concentrated on hitting that wall and finishing the race, I still didn't feel like everything was falling completely into place, I felt like I wasn't going as fast as I was capable of but luckily it was fast enough" she admitted.

"So you improved by 1.44 seconds from the semi finals to the final and it was all down to technique and confidence levels?" "Yes! This is my first Olympics so I wasn't sure on what to expect and it's been a lot of pressure and weight on me for it. As for 'using' anything, no way! I've been tested by Team USA and I'll be tested again after this by the Olympics and it'll come back negative for anything. I never have and never will use anything either for performance or for recreation, what's the point? I want to swim and perform at the best I know my body is capable of. Using any form of enhancement only serves to show you think you're not good enough, if you're going to use drugs of any kind you might as well just let someone else swim your race and you take their medal" she explained and he nodded.

"So you've said already this is your first Olympics, this is your first race and you perform like that. You've got 3 other swims am I right?" he said "Yeah, 3 more but this is my favorite race and by far the one I feel better in. I'm more comfortable in this race than the others but we'll see, I'm more than happy with this so we'll just see where it goes" she answered him. "Well this has to do wonders for your confidence levels" "You'd think! It's been a crazy few days with getting here and being in this environment, so it took a while to absorb it all. I think it was more my coach, I sat through an hour long lecture last night in which I was made to feel about this small" she indicated "I think it really made me realize that I have to forget all this and just concentrate on that pool, I also got some great advice from a friend last night and this morning so that really helped add to the focus I had building up" she laughed.

"Well it was a great race, I hope your coach agrees" "Me too! Although they always think you can do better than you have! I just want to say that this medal is for my dad, he got me in to swimming. He made my mom take me as a baby and from being young he had me down the pool and he had me try every stroke out to find where I would go better. He's been a huge inspiration and as a kid he made me work hard at swimming and train hard, I owe a lot to him and the time and effort he put in to my swimming as a kid. Plus I'm pretty sure I'm in big trouble for lying to him about it all and telling him I was at work this week" she laughed and the guy looked at her.

"Your parents don't know you're here?" "Well I'd imagine they do now because they're in here somewhere but no! They had no idea I was in training let alone that I'd qualified, I got them out here on false pretenses and told them I was working back home. Sorry guys! And whilst I'm already in trouble I should probably admit that I quit work over 3 years ago, don't be mad please?" she asked. "Well we'll let you go enjoy the moment and here's to hoping mom and dad don't get too mad at you" he joked and she laughed, "Thank you and I still cannot believe I was just talking to Ian Thorpe on TV. Mental!" she said grinning before walking off and scanning the crowds before seeing a stars and stripes flag waving manically in the crowd.

She pointed to them climbing up the steps of the stands for the press towards her parents who'd rushed down to the edge of the barriers for the stands. She threw her arms out to hug her mom and her dad pushed her out the way "Dorothy you're in so much trouble young lady! But my baby just won a gold medal! I told you were a good swimmer! We're so proud of you!" he shouted hugging her and she laughed. "I'm sorry! Surprise though!" she stated hugging her mom who gripped her far tighter than she could ever remember her being able to.

"We've missed you! We're so proud!" her mom yelled over the noise of people cheering around them and she smiled at them, "Dad this one's for you! Here!" she said holding her flowers out at him and he took them from her kissing her forehead "I have to go!" she offered as people around her patted her arm in congratulations and she nodded at them smiling before climbing back down.