Courtney Peters

In high school, I was known as "the girl that swims at 4:20 in the morning," but most people call me Courtney. I was born and raised in Sandusky, Ohio on a little farm my dad built. We moved to Dallas, Georgia around 1999. Our new house was a major upgrade from our previous one; we had a basement, an upstairs, a pool, and a big pond. Both my little sister and I shared a room, which was across the hall from my older sister. Mind you, this was the Time of Boy Bands, and when you went upstairs, it was a boy-band battle. My little sister and I blasted Nsync while my older sister blasted Backstreet Boys throughout the day. Moving to this new house also sparked the beginning of my love for swimming.

In 2002, we moved again, this time to New Albany, Indiana. Within the first month of school, I came home with a newsletter saying that I could sign up for soccer, my favorite sport at the time, but then my mom took a closer look and saw that we missed the sign-up date by a couple of days. After looking over the newsletter again, we also saw an ad for a year-round swim team tryout. Let's just say from that point on I have had no life. I was 9 years old at the time and have swum every day (even two times a day) since then... I am 20 now, you do the math! On the cold wintery nights in Indiana, my little sister, brother, and our two golden retrievers loved to pile in on my queen sized heated waterbed.

My dad grew tired of these cold snowy days, so he decided to take a job offer once again in Atlanta. Moving back down to Georgia was hard for me at the time, but moving back brought me to where I am today. I joined an amazing swimming program, Marietta Marlins Inc., coached by Lim. Lim introduced me to one of the University of Georgia coaches, Harvey, at a swim meet when I was eleven. I remember talking to Harvey about his team on how they won the National Championship meet three years in a row, and thinking to myself that I wanted to swim for him one day. I talked to Harvey every time I saw him at meets after that. Some of these talks would be quizzes of names of the football players at the time; I even made flashcards to get prepared for these quizzes. All of those quizzes and hard practices, which my coach got from Harvey, have led me to where I am today. I am now apart of the University of Georgia's Swimming and Diving team, and I couldn't be any happier. My story is still continuing, and I can't wait to see what happens.