Riley Gaines

There were no pools open.

There were no gyms open, nothing like that.

And so every day I swam miles aimlessly in the lake.

I put on a wetsuit and I jump in the boat dock and I'd swim down by Johnny Cash's house.

And I came back and I did the same route every single day because, again, I knew that I had to.

If I wanted to continue this breakout season, I was having my junior year and my sophomore year into my junior year.

Right.

And the amount of snakes that I swam by and like dead catfish that are floating on top of the water that like hit you in your face while you're swimming is not pleasant.

But eventually we were able to come back junior year.

We had to deal with all the COVID theatrics, which I'll be the first person to say that being a college athlete, really being a college student, I would argue being a human during the time of COVID was miserable, to say the least.

But especially being an athlete, right, in terms of the mask mandates and the social distancing and the contact tracing and the mandatory vaccines, which have you ever seen a swimmer in the pool wearing a mask?

You have?

Well, we essentially waterboarded ourselves.

Isn't it?

Isn't it?

But dealing with all the theatrics outside of all that.

Really, this was the year that I won my first individual SEC title.

University of Kentucky won its first ever program title in school history.

And ultimately, I concluded my junior year placing seventh in the country, which I was proud of, right?

You're top eight.