Who was Hazel Maidens? She was a 14–year old girl growing up in Durham, North Carolina. Agog about swimming, she kept up with it as a spectator as much as possible – this included attending plenty of local swimming races and watching professional swimmers compete on television. While watching the summer Olympics on this particular day, she was impressed with the tremendous speed the swimmers who swam the 100-meter and 200-meter races possessed.
In her excitement she burst, “Wow! Look at those swimmers go! I wish I could swim like them.”
Her mom replied, “You can do it if you put your mind to it and apply yourself toward reaching that goal.”
Her dad inputted, “You must learn swimming techniques and practice a lot besides strengthening your entire body. It would be a good idea for you to take swimming lessons this summer and try out for your school’s swim team as you start high school in September.”
“Good idea. I’ll do that,” returned Hazel.
Hazel enrolled for Saturday swimming lessons and quickly advanced. As she became a 9th grade freshman that September, she made it onto the high school girls swim team. She was so good that she helped steer her team to the state championships which her family attended.
As she was considerably ahead of the other seven finalists in the last 50 meters, her little sister Vanessa cheered on, “Come on, Hazel, you can do it!”
As Hazel reached the end of the swimming pool about one and a fourth seconds ahead of the runner-up, her big brother Laniel beamed, “You did it! You go, girl!”