follows Brielle on a journey
of growth and achievement. As a nationally ranked backstroker
Brielle grapples with living up to the responsibility of her talent
and the pressure of being a Jim Ellis protege. Brielle also faces pressure from
her family and peers as they eagerly await her college decision for the
Fall of 2002.

The youngest of four daughters, Brielle was always an individual.
By the time she was eleven she was taller than her three older sisters
and she often feels awkward and out of place at her small private girls
school. Brielle also feels isolated training on a higher
level than many of her peers. As an African-American swimmer
in a predominantly white sport, Brielle struggles to
balance the hopes and dreams of her coaches and family, with her own.

"I've grown up swimming, I can't remember a time when I didn't swim. I just followed in my sisters footsteps, we all swam. I look up to my sisters a lot..."

"I want to swim...fast, I just don't like all of the attention...
When Jim scrutinizes me, it's too much pressure. He doesn't understand
my feelings and we don't communicate well. I'm the only
female swimmer from PDR to ever make it to Trials and it's hard to train
without that many teammates."

"Sometimes I wish that I wasn't so fast, then Jim would leave me alone,
and I could just swim...for myself. It's bad enough that I have to go to school,
but swimming shouldn't be like that, it shouldn't feel like a job."
--Brielle White