Eva Mayer, Star Swimmer
Hi, my name is Eva. I was nine years, eight weeks and two days old when I dived into my local pool to start my 12-week charity Channel Swim on September 10th 2012.
The challenge is to swim the distance of the English Channel (22 miles) over 12 weeks. I will need to swim 1,416 lengths in total to achieve this, that’s nearly 120 lengths every single week for three months.
I’ve been looking forward to this all summer because I LOVE swimming, because I would like to swim the real English Channel one day (as long as there aren’t too many jelly fish!), and because I want to raise as much money as possible for the Aspire charity to help improve the lives of people with spinal injuries.
As well as swimming, I also like tap dancing, sailing, writing stories, all kinds of art, strawberries, peaches, milkshakes, and giggling uncontrollably. My favourite colours are red and rainbow.
I first started splashing about in the water regularly when I was a baby. By the time I was a toddler I could swim underwater, Mum says there was no stopping me after that. It took a few years of lessons to master all four of the swimming strokes: front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly.
Just after my sixth birthday I swam my first continuous mile. A few months later I swam 2000 metres (a mile and a half). Last year I started preparing for competition swimming and now train at least three or four times a week. I swim for my school team too. I have a good coach and lots of energy but sometimes he can wear me out! Afterwards my favourite thing to do is just stand under the shower with the warm water pouring over my head for quite a long time!
One of my swimming heroes is Rebecca Adlington. Mum took me to the London Olympics this year to watch the swimming finals. When I walked into the Aquatics Centre I was speechless. The fifty-metre pool looked HUGE. The lights were so bright. There were flags and cameras everywhere and thousands of people sitting in rows of seats that stretched back and back, right up to the ceiling.
When the swimmers were ready to dive in and the microphone man said: “On your marks…” I could imagine just how they felt – excited and nervous, wanting it to be the best swim ever. Once they were in the water the crowds SCREAMED so loud it hurt my ears. I saw Michael Phelps become the most decorated Olympian ever. When it was all over it was dark outside. Mum’s voice and mine sounded croaky from cheering so much.
One day, I would like to swim in the Olympics. Whatever happens, I will never stop swimming because I love it so much. The water is like my second home. As soon as I dive in I smile, I feel happy and free, like I’m really ME.
Thanks for taking the time to visit my Aspire Channel Swim page. You can see my regular updates at my JustGiving page www.justgiving.com/evaswim
You can donate quickly and safely through JustGiving by clicking the ‘donate’ button.
So please, please, please, dig deep and donate now. Thanks a lot! Eva x