"The most important one would be: that nothing worth having comes easy. Everyone wants to be successful, but only a few people manage to do it. Training and commitment are more important than just words." -- Mary Bao
Meet Mary Bao, a swimmer from Shanghai! A top veteran swimmer, she is a national first-level athlete (国家一级运动员) and champion in several local games. As the best swimmer in the school, she is my role model for a female athlete. I am very curious about what stories are behind such an excellent person, and what views she has on her identity – as a female athlete. I am interviewing her to understand what drives her, how she excels in the sport, and how it has positively impacted her life.
Q: Why did you start swimming and why did you choose this among all the other sports?
Mary: I first believed swimming would make me healthy. Back then, I was often sick, so my family looked to sports. I chose swimming because of its individuality – it suits me well as I prefer staying alone – sometimes, especially after being “social” extensively at significant events. The tranquility of water drowns out all noises and allows me some opportunities for reflection.
It is also quite skillful so you can’t swim faster, just by dumping energy in blindly. It is a sport where you have to focus on techniques and think about what you’re doing.
Q: After persisting in swimming for so many years, you must have come across both obstacles and successes; what are your most memorable experiences?
Mary: I have met countless challenges in this process. There are times when I feel like reaching plateaus and struggling to improve, heavy school days when I feel too tired to go to training, and competitions where I am milliseconds away from winning. I think the key to overcoming these challenges is to accept your mistakes and evaluate yourself strategically. For me, I always reflect after every competition: about my mentality, technical moves, and whether or not I was trying my best. In subsequent practices and competitions, I build upon my experience to perfect myself.
At the same time, there are important values I’ve acquired through these years of swimming. I am most proud of my resilience. Intensive training has molded me into someone who doesn’t give up easily. This applies not only to swimming; it seeps even into classes I don’t like, where my persistence encourages me to try harder and work for appreciable results.
Q: How do you motivate yourself as a high-level athlete and push yourself to commit to swimming?
Mary: I am motivated by the social relationships I have built through swimming. The team atmosphere creates a sense that “we’re in this together”, which inspires me to keep going because everyone else is.
At the same time, I have always been balancing swimming with my other commitments, such as academics, debate, and other extracurricular activities. I think that sometimes it’s essential to not focus on just one priority as that would burn me out! Having more interests also just genuinely makes my life more exciting.
Q: During your weekly training of swimming, what are some lessons you learned and how do you feel about persisting for so long?
Mary: My feeling after every training session is a mix of exhaustion, relief, and happiness. Exhausted – because I went through a very intensive training schedule; relieved – because I managed to finish it; and cheerful – because I believe in the sport – that it hardens me and builds my body.
There is always new inspiration each time, and new lessons are learned. The most important one would be: that nothing worth having comes easy. Everyone wants to be successful, but only a few people manage to do it. Training and commitment are more important than just words.
Q: As a top female player, how does the identity of a “female athlete” impact you? Has it brought you any challenges and insecurities?
Mary: On a competitive level, It is undeniable that people who are biologically male have a fundamental advantage over women in sports. Being a girl has made me more empowered to put on my best performance just to show other girls that “it’s possible”. I discovered that I am actually more capable than I imagined myself to be. For example, when I attend a competition and set a new personal best, I become more motivated to keep going.
In middle school, I realized the discrepancy between males and females. Boys I used to easily win quickly became better than me, and it was quite a significant blow. For a while, I thought maybe I wasn’t training hard enough, and sometimes I doubted my own abilities. I found it extremely disheartening to see people surpassing me without even making too much effort. Then I learned that the bodies of all genders are built differently, and gradually, I abandoned my overly perfectionist mindset. I also stopped comparing myself to boys, knowing that it wouldn’t be a fair comparison.
Success in swimming should not be defined as getting first place in the most prestigious competition, but rather as working to your best capacity and being better than you were yesterday.
On the other side, female athletes are usually the minority - girls are pressured to do activities that are deemed “more suitable for girls” based on outdated gender norms. This causes a problem as sports teams disproportionately have more male members. For a while, this was very demotivating for me because I would have no one to talk to in the changing rooms! Thinking that this could have been remedied, I encouraged some of my friends who quit swimming to come back just a few times every week, which also benefited them because it gave them more of a possibility to continue swimming.
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