The race started and Anna sat in silence. She couldn’t cheer, she couldn’t clap. She was frozen in her seat as she watched intently as James raced up and down the pool. Halfway through the race and he was already ahead by more than three body lengths. His nearest rival was his friend and training partner, Ian. But James was determined that this race was not going to become the one that got away. At the final turn James was more than three seconds clear and still almost half a second under his world record. He seemed to be cruising down the final fifty but when he touched the wall, he glanced up at the time and was honestly surprised by his own time. He’d been pushing hard, and as a result James had broken his own world record by one-point two seconds.

As he climbed from the pool he stuck his arms up in the air, saluting the crowd. The English crowd was on their feet, cheering and clapping the Australian hero and New World Champion. Ian had managed to hold on to take second place, with the British swimmer Charles Clancy finishing to take the bronze. James looked over to where his parents and Anna sat. They all had wide smiles plastered across their faces. Diana and Michael were beaming with pride. James had faced hell but he had won. It hadn’t stopped him from achieving his goal. It just happened to be that on this day, James’s best was better than everyone else’s. Better by over three seconds.

Anna’s beaming smile showed James how truly happy she was for him. She stood beside him earlier in the year when he had considered giving it all up, but thankfully she had managed to talk him out of it. James just flashed a perfect smile directly at Anna. After a quick press conference, he dived straight down into the warm pool. He had to swim the lactic acid out of his body before his next race otherwise he would cramp and be completely useless. He swam two and a half kilometres before joining his team-mates to swim the relay. It was the best team Australia could enter. James, Ian, Justin, and another swimmer from Western Australia, Tyrone. When you combined their personal best times they were only point five outside the world record and more importantly only point two three behind the arrogant Americans.

Justin led off with a fantastic swim. He had an arm’s length lead when he touched the wall and sent Tyrone into the water. Tyrone was the slowest of the four, but he was by no means a slouch. He touched the wall barely an arm’s length behind the American. By now it was a two horse race. The Netherlands were sitting comfortably in third but trailed the Americans and the Australians by more than two seconds. Ian hit the water and went as fast as he could. Forty-seven seconds later he touched the wall on exact terms with the Yank. Now it was James’s turn to do something magical and bring it home. The crowd rose to their feet, chanting and clapping like people possessed. James came to the fifty-metre wall and was only half a length behind Jason, his American nemesis.

The chants grew louder. The commentator was standing on his tip-toes in his booth on the pool deck. Anna gasped. She had seen James do some amazing things but even she didn’t know if James could come back from this far down. He was just too far behind. America had a strangle hold on first, but someone forgot to tell James. It was almost as if he could hear their doubts and that was enough. All of a sudden he lifted. As he pushed himself harder he passed under the fifteen-metre rope. He had clawed his way back until they were shoulder to shoulder with the feisty young American. At this point they were going stroke for stroke towards the wall. The crowd fell silent as the screen went blank. No one knew who won. Then a roar went up. Australia had done it. They had just broken America’s grip on the one race that they’d never lost. It was a race that the Americans had dominated since its inclusion many, many years ago. Now, not only were the Australians World Champions, but they’d also taken the world record off the cocky American team.

They were ecstatic. The coaches were doing cartwheels in the stands. They embraced in a hug before turning and bowing to the crowd.

One young lady sitting next to Anna was screaming at the top of her lungs, “James, you’re my hero. Marry me!”

It was strange, ever since Anna and James had been together Anna had listened and laughed away comments just like this one, but now she was filled with something she’d never felt before. Jealousy. Anna felt her fist clench and for the first time Anna found herself wanting to punch someone. That had never happened before, and she didn’t like the feeling.

The boys went over to do their press conference. As they were introduced the crowd fell silent. It was as if someone had just cut off their voices and now they were unable to speak. Justin spoke first. He told of how he wanted to get the team a good lead so he could set it up. Tyrone spoke of how his main focus was to hold his own and hope the boys could finish it off. Ian admitted that he just wanted to make sure that James hit the water on equal terms. He knew what he could do. As long as James went in at the same time as the American, he had every confidence James could pull off the miracle. He knew what James would do. Then it was James’s turn to speak.

“I needed to finish it off for the boys. They set it up for me and I couldn’t let them down. It was a great win. I would also just like to thank the crowd for their support. We could definitely hear you out there. Especially in the final fifty, and we just hope that you will be back tomorrow night to support us again. Cheers.”

As soon as James had finished speaking, the cheer went up. “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!”

By the end of the night James was exhausted. He’d barely slept at all last night, tonight he had swum two races and in both races he had broken world records. Then he had to wait around for almost an hour for drug testing before he could get to Anna, who was waiting patiently in the stands.

“You should have gone home,” he said, slumping down in the chair next to her.

“Why is that? I didn’t mind waiting. Your parents left a while ago. They said congratulations and they will talk to you tomorrow.” James laid his weary head down in Anna’s lap. “You were amazing tonight. Congratulations,” she said, kissing his forehead lightly.

James smiled up at her. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being my friend. For putting up with all my shit for the past few years and for knowing me better than anyone else. I love you.” James sat up. He was staring deep into Anna’s eyes. “Let’s go home. I could use a shower.”

Anna just laughed. “Yeah, you smell like chlorine.”

James threw her over his shoulder. “Really? You love it.” He smirked, smacking her bum playfully as he carried her down out of the stands and out the front door.

It was after eleven o’clock when James and Anna found their way out of the aquatic centre, and more than an hour since the competition had finished. James stupidly had thought that everyone would have already gone home, but he was wrong. The car park was still filled with television crews, newspaper reporters, and a flock of screaming girls waiting for him to appear.

As he stepped through the door, he was still laughing and looking at Anna. They were caught up in their own exclusive bubble. “There he is!” someone screeched. James stopped dead in his tracks. Before he could comprehend what was happening, he was surrounded. Questions were being fired at him from all directions. Reluctantly he put Anna down and she instinctively stepped behind him, still clinging to his hand. Despite the gold medals and world records, most of the questions weren’t about his swims earlier but instead they focused on the woman he had just carried out of the arena.

James wasn’t in the mood to deal with questions about his personal life. All he wanted to do was to go home, shower, and spend some quality time with his new wife.