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I could look at my race and break it down to
the very tenths and hundredths of a second
and how I could better myself.
I'm not that competitive of a person.
Swimming was perfect for me.
It's so individual.
Because I was so caught up in dropping those increments,
little by little I became one of the better swimmers on my team,
in the state, in the country,
some in the world.
Swimming was a year-round sport—
every day in the water, back and forth, down the line.
I put a lot of things on the back burner—
relationships, family.
Now here I am, 25 years old, starting my very first job.
Jay, will you do a deck walk and pick up trash?
A challenge I have now is
being a manager of a staff
of 35 to 40 college students. How we doin'?
When I say I retired from swimming at 24 years old,
people look at me, thinking, "Why don't you drive a better car?"
Seeing new avenues available to me
and different paths I could take,
one of them was fulfilling my potential as a woman,
starting a family, and allowing myself to fall in love
and really having a true teammate
who could be there no matter what.
In college I had a hard time connecting with other people.
The drinking and party scenes are big,
and I had to make my stand of what
I believed and what I was going to do
and what I was not going to do.
It was hard for my teammates to accept that at first.
But eventually it turned into a form of respect,
and that meant the world to me.
But now, having someone there who I'm on the same page with—
maybe not on how we're going to do the dishes
or who's going to vacuum the floor today,
but as we move forward, we have the same dreams.
My faith is my foundation. It's my core, who I am.
I believe that inside, I have a relationship that
goes far deeper than any résumé or medal.
My name is Lacey Nymeyer John.
I am a Wildcat for life.
I am married. I love my husband's blue eyes.
I'm a Tucson girl and an Olympic silver medalist.
And I'm a Mormon.