As soon as Jacob Pebley<\/strong> touched the wall, a look of disbelief spanned his face. He covered his face as tears poured out from his eyes. He grabbed his yellow cap and smashed it into the water.<\/p>\n

Cal teammate and first-place finisher Ryan Murphy<\/strong> eventually got Pebley\u2019s attention and pulled him into an embrace, but Pebley could not take his eyes of the scoreboard. He had finished second at Olympic Trials in the 200 back, and he would join Murphy in the event in Rio.<\/p>\n

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Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports<\/p><\/div>\n
The achievement was something Pebley had dreamed of and visualized over and over in his head, but he had known that making the Olympics would take a monumental effort: He would have to finish ahead of defending Olympic gold medalist Tyler<\/strong> Clary<\/strong>. And Pebley did just that\u2014he touched in 1:54.77, while Clary finished in 1:55.33.<\/p>\n
“You have to assume the defending Olympic champion is going to give a good fight, so it was kind of a barrier I had to hurdle over,” Pebley said. “When I saw that I\u2019d done it, it kind of felt like a dream because I\u2019d seen it so many times in my head. When I saw it, it was like I was closing my eyes in my room or something. It wasn\u2019t quite real.”<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Pebley never expected the emotions to hit quite so hard, even if his teammates had insisted Pebley would cry if he made the Olympic team. But in the 24 hours he had to sit and wait between the semi-final and the final, Pebley had realized why making the Olympic team would mean so much to him.<\/p>\n
He had thought of his mother, Cathy Worth<\/strong> Pebley<\/strong>, who had died of cancer ten years earlier. He thought of her while lying in bed during the night and the hours before his race, and he thought of her as soon as he realized he was an Olympian.<\/p>\n
“Swimming has always been a journey that I brought along my mom with. She was always so passionate about the sport with me. That\u2019s never gone away,” Pebley said.<\/p>\n
“When you\u2019re just kind of talking to yourself at night before one of the biggest swims of your life, you kind of think back through your whole career and why it\u2019s so important to you to be in this moment, and that was it for me. It hit me, like, that was why I wanted to be there, was for her.”<\/p>\n
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The Pebleys couldn't hold it in when Jacob realized his Olympic Dream!!! pic.twitter.com\/fsZOjZ1mF9<\/a><\/p>\n
— cathy durden (@CathyDurden) July 2, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n