Bobby Hackett grew up in Yonkers, NY far from California, the hot spot of competitive swimming. Coming from a low-income family, at the age of thirteen he had to borrow money to compete at the U.S. Nationals, but when he placed in the top sixteen in the one mile race, his expense were paid. As luck would have it, his high school coach was also the coach of the national team. During high school, he had to wake up early every morning and swim for two hours before classes and then again in the evening. He ended up training thirteen times a week, for five hours a day. When he realized that his fellow swimmers in high school offered him no competition he started training on his own. Seeing that he was swimming at a "really high level ", his coach had him start training for the Olympics his junior year. At the Olympics he came away with a silver medal.
Able to go to any college in the country he wanted, he chose Harvard. Once there though, Bobby decided not to make swimming his life. Because of the demands of school he found himself training less than he had in high school and soon made a conscious decision not to take off his junior year for the Olympics. Not wanting to make swimming his life, he decided it was better to graduate on time and start a career. In the end, he adds, if you want to compete at an Olympic level you need to have no distractions in life - something he wasn't willing to do.
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