{"id":329676,"date":"2018-09-19T12:03:25","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T19:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=329676"},"modified":"2018-09-19T10:46:58","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T17:46:58","slug":"elaine-breeden-takes-first-swim-with-daughter-10-years-after-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/elaine-breeden-takes-first-swim-with-daughter-10-years-after-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Elaine Breeden Takes First Swim With Daughter 10 Years After Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dan D’Addona.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ten years ago, Elaine Breeden<\/strong><\/a> was at the top of the swimming world, competing in her first Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

When she dove into the water in Beijing, her life would never be the same.<\/p>\n

Ten years later, Breeden was in the water once more, and again, her life would never be the same.<\/p>\n

This time it was because she was in the water with her 8-week-old baby Julia<\/strong>, the first time her daughter entered a pool, a place that had so much meaning and history for her mother.<\/p>\n

\"elaine-breedne-daughter-2\"

Photo Courtesy: Elaine Breeden<\/p><\/div>\n

It was almost 10 years to the day of Breeden earning a silver medal in Beijing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I was kind of aware of that. It wasn\u2019t planned. I had seen my Olympic teammates posting anniversary posts for 10 years, so we were all tagged to a lot of things,\u201d Breeden said. \u201cThere are a lot of parallels. Being back there with my baby was surreal. She is going to enjoy those days in another six to eight years. Although I don\u2019t know if I will enjoy being a swim mom as much as I was a swimmer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making it even more special was the fact that the historic mother-daughter swim happened in the same pool that Breeden grew up in.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe loves it. She is obsessed with the water. Baths are her favorite things. I think she was 8 weeks when we took her to the pool. She splashed around for a good 20 minutes and absolutely loving it. We got her out when she started shivering,\u201d she said. \u201cWe went back to my childhood pool in Kentucky. It is my summer league neighborhood pool. There is a plaque that they put up that says childhood pool of Elaine Breeden. So we got Julia\u2019s picture with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It brought back a plethora of memories and had Breeden thinking about Julia\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of weird being back there and remembering the summer league meets and having my heat and lane written on my hand with a sharpie. I used to be a total pool rat. We would bike to morning practice then pretty much stay and play at the pool until it closed. That is how we spent our summers,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is just kind of mind-blowing how fast things go by.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is hard to believe it has been a decade since Beijing, something that Breeden, who also held the longest-standing NCAA record recently broken<\/a>, thinks of often.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still remember everything,\u201d she said. \u201cI loved my teammates. I knew most of them, but really getting to know them as teammates really changes your relationship. I remember how much fun we had at training camp in Singapore. I remember the huge highlights, Jason Lezak<\/strong>\u2019s incredible comeback in the 400 freestyle relay. That will always be seared into my brain as one of the coolest Olympic moments and I was right there watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woven into those moments were Breeden\u2019s swims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose went by like a blur. I had the 100 fly the first day and I remember not being able to sleep the night before because the Opening Ceremony was right by my window it seemed, so the fireworks were pretty loud,\u201d she said. \u201cI remember just being so excited. I had never represented the U.S. at that level. I was disappointed because I didn\u2019t make the finals, but you can\u2019t be too disappointed with 10th in the world. \u2028I ended up getting seventh in the 200 fly. I was happy to get into that final.\u201d<\/p>\n