'The one-armed wonder'

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AURORA - From a very young age, swimming has been a big part of Lyndsay Williams' life.

"Ever since she was a little girl, about 8 years old, she just loved to swim," said Tammie Williams, Lyndsay's mother. "We just couldn't keep her out of the water."

That time in the water helped make Lyndsay into a very good competitive swimmer. She has competed on the Grandview High School swim team for three years and has dreams of swimming for a college team.

"Her heart is all in swimming," said Jillian Taylor, Lyndsay's summer league team coach.

Lyndsay's heart and desire have never been a problem. Her right shoulder was.

For four years, a tear in the rotator cuff caused Lyndsay to swim in and through a lot of pain. It finally reached the point where something had to be done. Doctors recommended surgery.

"I cried because I was scared for what was going to happen with swimming," Lyndsay said. "Was I ever going to be able to swim again?"

The answer to that was yes, but it would take six months to a year for the shoulder to heal. That meant no swimming for at a half a year.

"She was devastated," Tammie Williams said.

The surgery was successful and Lyndsay did return to the pool to help coach her summer league team, but being close to the water only made her miss it more.

She wasn't willing to risk re-injuring the right shoulder by using it to swim, but she started to wonder if she would be able to swim without it by using just her left arm. Eventually she asked her coach if she could try.

"I was like, let's see it," Taylor said. "Let's see what you've got."

What Lyndsay had was a passion for the sport that allowed her to quickly adapt to swimming with one arm. She went from dead last in her first swim meet to consistently placing in the top six as the summer wore on. Her race times became good enough for her to qualify for one of 15 spots in the league championship.

"She's the one-armed wonder," Taylor said. "Every time I watch her swim, I just sit there in awe. Because I know how hard it is to swim with two arms and it is amazing how she does it with one."

Lyndsay hopes the shoulder will heal quickly enough to allow her to resume swimming with two arms for her senior year of high school. The experience has taught her something about swimming, but more importantly she's learned something about herself.

"I'm a lot stronger than I thought," she said.