“She starts telling us about her Halloween costume and what her sister got for her birthday, and just really opened up,” Clute said. “She’s a very outgoing girl, probably because all she’s gone through.”
Weeks later, Sophie attended the Crimson’s preseason intrasquad meet. She raced her 25 yards during a heat of the 50-yard freestyle. After nervously grasping the hand of Crimson coach Stephanie Morawski '92 as she stood on the starting blocks, Sophie plopped into the pool feet-first and churned through the water.
“I was not expecting it,” Clute said of Sophie’s swim. “She came up to me when she walked in [to the pool], and she goes, ‘I’ve been practicing all week for this. I’m so excited to swim with the team.’ And then she killed it. I thought [my teammates and I] were going to have to jump in and help her, but she got to the other end of the pool all by herself.”
Sophie and her fellow swimmers celebrated a successful day at the races with a well-earned team dinner at the Eliot D-hall.
INSPIRATION AT THE DUAL MEET
On Saturday, Sophie returned to Blodgett once more as the Crimson hosted Columbia in its dual meet home opener. She skipped across the white tiles as she arrived on deck during warm-ups, proudly sporting her black Harvard Swimming jacket. Clute and sophomore Courtney Otto hopped out of the pool to say hello, and Sophie showed them a paper turkey that she had made at preschool.
“[Sophie] just adores [Clute] and [Otto],” Pettengill said. “She says she wants to be just like them when she grows up.”
When Sophie arrived at the team locker room, she found a “Happy Birthday” banner strung across her locker as she received a cupcake, a card, and a special happy birthday song from her Harvard teammates.
“Today, today, today, today, today is somebody’s birthday. Not the pickle, not the pear. Not the elephant, not the bear. Today, today, today, today, today is Sophie’s birthday.”
Sophie had turned five years old two days before the meet. Just two and a half years ago, such a milestone may have seemed out of reach.
As Harvard marched out of the locker room with Sophie for the beginning of the competition, Sophie became overwhelmed by the loud cheering and excitement surrounding her first college dual meet. She quickly buried herself in her mother’s arms during the pre-meet introductions.
By the end of the meet, however, Sophie had acquiesced to the strange NCAA meet environment. During the last event, the 4x100 freestyle relay, Sophie energetically bounced up and down behind lane one, cheering on her teammates as she absorbed the splashes of their flip turns. At one point, she swung her arms as if to imitate a relay start. She was the Crimson D relay’s fifth woman.
“She feels so much a part of this team,” Pettengill said. “I knew that it would be very positive for her to have this kind of mentorship with these amazing young and inspiring women and be part of something bigger than herself as a member of this team, but it’s exceeded every expectation that I’ve had.”
And the college swimmers have perhaps learned just as much from Sophie.
“It’s very inspiring for me and the rest of my teammates as well to see somebody like Sophie,” Otto said. “Before having a bad day, we realize that Sophie’s days have been a hundred times worse with everything that she’s had to go through, but she still has a smile on her face and is able to live life to the fullest.”
Sophie glowed as she high-fived Harvard teammates and Columbia competitors after the 187-113 Crimson victory. Maybe, years from now, she will be in a similar handshake line after swimming a longer college race—perhaps a 400-yard I.M. or a 1000-yard freestyle. Maybe she will become a highly-touted Class of 2030 recruit, or maybe she will develop some entirely different passion altogether.
But no matter what Sophie’s future may entail, the toughest lap lies behind her.