Early stages yet...

[LaFoto]

When I was looking for a photo that at first I couldn't find, I stumbled across these of the first stages of my daughter's competitive swimming and I think I'd want to share them with you all.
The first three were taken during a swim meet for the very young in June of 2000, so my girl was only 7 at the time, and I like how in the backstroke pic she laughs out of the water while swimming :

Mine's in the middle with the blue suit (doing the best start jump of all, mind..... proud mommy speaking :blulsh2: )
(And sorry about the quality of this scan, ooops, I didn't know how bad it is - it is a crop out of a larger print, scanned at too many dpi, I'm afraid... forgive me)

Apparently, the start photo was NOT the start to this race, since for backstroke you start backwards, of course (you all know that, don't you???)

Well, sigh: winning ceremony. And what did the whole team get? "Only" a bronze medal each. "Only bronze"! What a disappointment. Hadn't my then 7-year-old aspired to GOLD? Even then? And I remember her sulkily (no need to explain that she was sulking quite a bit, when you look at her in this photo, right?) saying to me (at 7!): "I'll never win myself a gold-medal in all my life!"

Harrumph....!

This one was taken a month later in an open air pool meet and see with whom she had to compete from the very beginning since she was much faster than the others from her age group at that time (now things have balanced themselves well out):

(Again, my daughter's the one in the middle)
(Oops again: I ought to have straightened this one out after scanning... but am only now seeing the slant, o dear!)

 

[BLS]

These are wonderful memory shots. I looked a long time at #3. Your daughter looks so much smaller and younger than her competition, as though wasn't a fair match but I guess it was (I know nothing about swimming meets).

Thanks for sharing!

 

[LaFoto]

Thanks for commenting, BLS.
I'm so sorry for the bad quality of the first but am too lazy to rescan and re-load it... .

Hopefully in the future to come she will begin to appreciate her photos. For the time being, she hates each and every one of them... (but might begin to like these, for "sooooo much time has since passed, almost five long years" !!!) (OK, at almost 12, five year are nearly half her life...!)

 

[photo gal]

Great captures LaFoto. Someday your daughter will really appreciate having these photos!!! Good job! : )

 

[Alison]

The 1st and last photo tell such a story. In the first she's so concentrated on what she is doing, it's obvious she had talent from a very young age. And then in that last one, where she is so much smaller and still so intense. You've got every right to be a proud Mom! Thank you for sharing these!

 

[John E.]

Nice show, like the 2nd and third the most.