I love the smell of chlorine. It takes me back to childhood. I learned to swim as I learned to walk. The swim teacher told mum I’d be wasting my time in beginner classes and put me in with my older siblings. The pool was put in because my brother needed to build lung capacity as a long suffering asthmatic. The retrievers believed it was put in for them. Wet dog smell is immediately comforting to me. I used to walk along the edge of the pool, my feet fit exactly in the tiles. when I came to the end and I was hot enough, I would simply fall into the water, much to the terror of onlookers as my mother screamed ‘she can swim!’ But the silence is what I love most. Diving into the silence. Even racing, the roar of the crowd at every breath, the silence is what drives me. It is a coming back to myself.