Past in Perspective

This life is like a swimming pool. You dive into the water, but you can’t see how deep it is. –Dennis Rodman Kristin Otto is considered to be one of the best swimmers of all time. She entered a special sports school at the age of 11 and was identified as a swimming prospect early on. She trained hard to become a professional until she cracked her vertebra and spent nine months in a neck brace. All of her doctors advised her to give up the sport and pursue something else but she never gave up and in fact, participated in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. There, she was the first female athlete to win six gold medals in a single edition of the Olympics, and she set the world records for the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly events. However, she retired officially right after the games, in 1988.