Swimming is a fascinating sport; watching a bunch of people move through the water is quite captivating. Though many of the renowned swimmers started their journey to live their dream as a swimmer, for some it turned out to be a necessity. The stories of Michael Phelps‘ teammate Cullen Jones and Olympic medalist Jessica Hardy follow the latter. Both of them confronted horrifying incidents in their childhood which led to them being swimmers. After Jones and Hardy almost drowned as kids they realized that swimming is a basic need and eventually picked it up as a profession.

Recently, the star swimmers worked together on a campaign named “Make a Splash” in 2015 where they instructed millions of children, to avoid repeating the same incidents from their childhood. Let’s dig deeper into the incidents that changed their life.

Michael Phelps’ teammate nearly drowned?

Cullen Jones shared with Yahoo parenting, “I flipped upside down when lifeguards weren’t looking my way and my parents turned their heads for a split second,” He also added, “They pulled me out and I had to be resuscitated.” After this occurrence at the age of 5, Jones started taking swimming lessons and consequently made it to the Olympics.

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Almost the same tale goes for Jessica Hardy. At the age of 3 years she, “… was at a family friend’s birthday party with my mom and dad and I fell into the pool,”. For the Olympic medalist,“…it was a very scary experience.” Although,  she was saved by a friend who rescued her. Devasted by this incident, her mother put her into swimming class. Later she won gold medals for her sport.

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Now, both of the maestros are involved in teaching swimming to millions of children. Their involvement with the USA Swimming Federation’s “Make A Splash” campaign is impressive. As it ensures it teaches the little ones the importance of swimming as a life skill and takes away their fear of drowning. Both the swimmers successfully moved on from the incident, and are now contributing to the lives of future swimming sensations.

Escaped death and made it to Olympics

Both their stories are of paramount importance in the swimming fraternity. Jessica was 3 years old when she first faced her biggest fear of drowning. The near-death experience was indeed horrifying for the gold medalist which made her conquer the worst nightmare. She was able to overcome her weakness in no time, whereas, Jones took a while to settle. And that eventually ended up making him the best of his time.

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The athletes did not start this journey as a means of fulfilling their dreams. They gradually upped the ante and worked on their skills to make it possible for them to reach the peak of success. Turns out, they made history by overcoming their fears. Now that’s a movie waiting to be made, don’t you think?