CreditCaitlin Ochs for The New York Times
Somewhere in the middle of the pool, Krystal Lara began to wonder when her hand would brush tile. She knew she was winning her race, but like most backstrokers in unfamiliar waters, she had only a vague sense of how far she had left to go. With her face cocked upward, she discerned her progress by the overhead lights retreating out of sight in a fluorescent blur.
When her fingertips finally touched the end of the pool, at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in North Carolina last August, Krystal heard her teammates break into rapturous applause.