Elizabeth McLin '23 Recruiting Profile

My love of swimming began when I was seven years old and joined the local club team. Until I was 11 or 12, it was just something fun to do, but it became part of me as I began to push myself to see how far I could make it. I am a hard worker and was always ready for that next really hard practice, or the opportunity to train with the older, faster kids. When I was in middle school, the head coached asked me how I liked our main since he knew it was really hard, and my immediate response was "It was really hard. I LOVED it." Since 2018, I have had knee surgery and multiple injuries, all on the same knee, causing a lot of frustration because the thing I am most passionate about was almost taken away from me. My mom and counselor were always suggesting I stop swimming, as I was constantly hurting and just pushing through it. I am currently recovering from Nerve Hypersensitivity that was caused eight months ago when I fractured my kneecap. We spent seven months not knowing what was causing this much pain, forcing me to really work on my mental game, and just do everything I could to keep swimming, and just work on what I could work on. This forced me to pull entire practices almost every day for the entire season. This gave me a lot of grit, and taught me the importance of knowing when you need to stop, and when its okay to push through, and also keeping your coach in the loop, so they're not confused when you stop kicking completely, for example. I am now recovering in leaps and bounds. As of September 2021, I've gone from no kicking for seven months to kicking 4,500 yards each day (increasing each week), I have returned to a full ROM squat, lunge, and deadlift, and am slowly adding weight back on to these exercises, and have ran many miles over the past two weeks, all things I had feared I wouldn't be able to return to doing.

I believe the team environment plays a major part in how you progress through the sport. I have noticed it is way easier to really push yourself to be your best when you are surrounded by people who are also excited about the tough set and see it as an opportunity to improve, instead of something to just survive. Because of this I make a point to cheer everybody on throughout practice and use those around me to motivate me to keep going.

I am currently a full IB student, and have earned my Bilingual Seal, marking me as a fluent Spanish and English speaker. I am working on balancing homework, training, and recovering from this injury.