The Swimathon Navya Singh

“We don’t have time, Navya!” my teammates groaned, as I approached them to sign up for the Swimathon to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. I’d been inspired to spearhead the fundraiser due to my father’s health scare. As a competitive swimmer for 12-years, I’ve competed and placed in Junior Olympics, Far Westerns, and North Coast Sectionals all in the 100-yard freestyle.

Last year, instead of solely focusing on competing, I wanted to use this passion of mine to give back to the community. I knew my teammates weren’t thrilled about the extraordinary work it would take to raise funds for the Swimathon--they had to swim in 0.5-seconds of their personal best 50-freestyle-time in order to donate $20. I went back to my Batcave, pondering: How can I convince them to sign up? Because swimming is innately an individualistic sport, I needed to set an example and unite my teammates as a team. I ensured them that I would do everything in my power to help them succeed. Because the 50-free was my strong suit, I stayed 2-hours after practices to help all 220 swimmers to develop their fast-twitch fibers and starts.

On the day of the Swimathon, we all munched on energy jelly beans. As we chanted, “We got this!” to each other, I...