I bought this book last year. I have been a swimmer for sixteen of my 21 years and have never found literature that really captured the way I felt about swimming. It helped me understand why I love my sport when the season got hard. It helped me, as captain of my team, to articulate the emotional and physical pain that a swimmer goes through. Often we find ourselves wishing the pain wasn't there, but some of these stories remind us that it's part of being a swimmer. I also read passages to the team that reminded us of the wonderful sensation of being in the water. We wouldn't trade it for the world.

I got this book for Christmas two years ago and I finished reading it the next day. The anthology captures an essential truth about swimming -- when we immerse ourselves in water there's an opportunity for transformation. Some of the swimmers suffer pain and agony, others find courage, and others experience bliss. But each swimmer emerges from the water different in each story, as will the reader when they finish this book.

Swimming emphasizes the importance of breathing. Water takes no offense but gives no quarter. Swimming allows us to feel at home in our coats of skin. Swimming gives rise to thoughts which express our experience in the water. Swimming is the thing itself wherein all benefits are in the moment of immerision