I came to know Christ at a young age, growing up in a home with Christian parents who were saved at a Billy Graham Crusade. My middle sister prayed with me to invite Christ into my life with me when I was six years old in our house. I grew up going to Sunday school and church in a loving and godly environment.

It’s been amazing to see how God’s using my swimming and molding me to be the best witness I can be for Him. My senior year of high school, then going into college at Texas A&M, I really started to realize why I’m swimming. It’s not just a sport or for popularity or the reputation I can gain from it; it’s not even for medals. God gave me this ability and talent to glorify Him and swim for Him, and that’s why I’m doing this every day. It’s not for a certain time or for media attention; I’ve had my eyes focused on Him.

God has brought me through a lot of struggles and sacrifices that swimming brings. I look back over the last few years of school and realize God has done so much through this, so much more than swimming. Even though I am about to go to the Olympics, the biggest thing of my life, there is still so much more than that that He’s given me.

We started a Bible study for our swim team and had three girls at the beginning. Now, there are 10-plus girls coming. Seeing what has developed on the swim team has been so humbling for me, knowing that God has used me to work on the team. It has helped me on the tough days of swimming when I’m going up and down the pool and am dying; He’s whispering to me, “It’s more than this. Look at what you’ve done, how I’m using you here.”

I realize how hard the journey has been to get to this point to achieve my dream of going to the Olympics. But God has brought me here to use it for His glory. He’s put me on this platform where I’m supposed to shine the light for Him and bring glory to His name. It’s the greatest platform He could have given me.

Photos by Amy Tripple, AIA