Maya’s Athlete Card

Maya is a 13-year-old distance freestyler for Riptide Aquatics with the thing that makes a distance swimmer: a real engine and a natural feel for the water. The gap this season has been racing that engine the right way, because being fit and swimming a fast race are two different things. She goes out too fast and dies in the back half — a pacing problem, not a fitness one; she loses time at every wall with weak turns and short underwaters, which is exactly where distance races are won; and when she gets tired at the end, her stroke falls apart and she slows down even more. The season's work went straight at those three, and her times are dropping.

• ▸A genuine engine and feel for the water — the aerobic base a distance swimmer is built on, and it's there.
• ▸Tough and willing to grind through the yardage that distance swimming demands.
• ▸Competitive and coachable; she'll do the boring technique and turn work.
• ▸Starting to pace her races and hold her back half together instead of dying at the end.

Maya is working to race her engine the right way instead of just being fit. Specifically: pacing — going out under control so she can bring her races home fast instead of fading, sharper walls (turns and underwater kicks) because that's where distance races are actually won and lost, and holding her stroke together when she's tired at the end of a race instead of falling apart. The engine and the feel for the water are already there; this season is about the race strategy and technique that turn all that fitness into fast times.