Kyra Harry '25 Recruiting Profile

Asking a typical swimmer who their role model is, a common answer would be swimmers like Micheal Phelps, Katie Ledecky or even Sarah Sjöström. My role model would be my grandmother. Trust me, she was far from a swimmer and even further from being even considered an athlete. However, what made her my role model was her perseverance and her ability to fight the challenges that try to take her on. My grandmother had always been my best friend, we were inseparable. She walked me through every stage in life, my first swim session filled with screams and terrors, to my first gold medal. She always made an effort to be there for me despite her staying 600 kilometres away from me.

Her biggest fight was stage 3 breast cancer. My other grandmother from my mom's side also faced this cancer but at stage 2, 2 years prior, so I believed if my other grandmother could fight it, so could she. However, I was wrong. Seeing my grandmother go from such a healthy state, to almost critical, will forever be with me. She walked into that cancer fight, believing and hoping that she would overcome it, and as every day came, it became an unsure possibility if she would make it to the next. Yet never once, did she say a word of negativity or fear. She gave the fight everything she had, and even when she knew she would not make it and the cancer started to spread to other areas while her cancer cells drastically began to increase, she took that fight to the grave, and this is what I admire about her. 

Everyone has got a reason for waking up every day and getting out of bed, mine would be to live everyday like my grandmother did. Every race I swim, I swim and fight it like she would. Every training session I swim, be it the horrible 800 i.m. sets or the long 10 by 100 sprints, I fight and swim like she would. And although what life has set out for me can be unpredictable, and challenging, I know that I will fight every battle just the way she would. I am looking forward to what the future has for me, and I am willing to take the challenges that arise with it head on.

I think I would be a good recruit as I am willing to put in the hard work, and not only on promising days, but especially on days where challenges and complications arise, I know I will give every day 110%