My name is Ihnat. I'm ten years old, and I've been swimming since birth — literally. When I was just a few months old, my mom brought me to the pool for the first time. When the session ended and she tried to lift me out of the water, I screamed. She put me back — I went quiet. After the third time, an experienced nurse watched the whole thing, turned to my parents, and said: "Congratulations. You've got a little swimmer on your hands."
That was ten years ago. Now it's four pool sessions a week, plus roughly the same amount of time again split between morning workouts and daily physical training.
I don't swim because I have to. I swim because when the water takes you in, the rest of the world simply disappears.
My goal is the 2032 Olympic Games. I'll be seventeen. Ahead of me are years of work that no one sees — early mornings, conditioning, training sessions, competitions, learning from every mistake, and racing against the only opponent that really matters: myself. But I know where I'm headed. The water remembers me — from the very first day.