The confident, but nervous 6-year-old quietly observed from the side of the pool as girls swam butterfly at her first summer league swim practice.
Aubrey Peacock didn't know any swimming techniques or breathing pattern, so when shehopped in the pool and beat everyone in a butterfly race, her mother didn't know what to think.
"Aubrey had never been taught to do butterfly, she watched somebody do it," said her mother, Susan Peacock.
Her strong kicks and quick strokes made it look like she had been swimming for a long time.
Aubrey half jokes with her mom about having a sixth sense that allows her to have an unusually close connection with her body that most people don't.
"I'm very visual," Aubrey said. "If I watch someone do something, I'm able to digest it and do it."
It's an ability you cannot teach, according to Susan.
"She had a very good mind and body connection from a very young age because she could literally just watch something and recreate it in the water," Susan said. "With her, she can just watch it and do it."
Aubrey and her mother believe her body awareness came from swimming and her medical problems.
An autonomic nervous system disorder that caused her to lose consciousness taught her how to read her body the most when she was young, Peacock said.
A broken pinky, torn quad and fractured spine taught Aubrey how to push herself to an edge she knows will not hurt her.
"I think I know my body so well, I kind of know exactly where the line is that you can push it, and there is a time where you can cross the line," Aubrey said. "I think I am really good at determining when I get to that line. I know when I'm pushing myself too hard, and I know when I'm not pushing myself hard enough."
The 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier was also born with a heart defect that required doctors to open up her pulmonary valve when she was an infant.
After heart surgery, Peacock had to have regular checkups every five years. Doctors discovered an electrical problem in her heart called Wolf-Parkinson syndrome on a checkup when she was 13.
The bleach blonde with a chip on her shoulder started swimming because she did not like sports that made her sweat.
The Georgia native's passion for the sport grew when she moved to Jacksonville, Florida. There, she started swimming for the Bolles School swimming and diving team, a program that has won more state championships and more consecutive championships than any other team in the history of Florida swimming.
After four years at Bolles, she spent her first two years of eligibility at the University of Arizona. Because of a coaching change, she transferred to Auburn in 2012.
"The new coach that we got (at Arizona), our values just didn't align," Aubrey said.
Auburn head coach Brett Hawke said she came in with a really positive attitude, and wanted to be a role model and leader right away.
"She came in a little hesitant, but she came in with the idea that she was going to set a great example from the get go and prove herself as a leader," Hawke said.
Peacock did not let the bad times at Arizona frustrate her, and made All-American six times in college.
She loved competing for Auburn with her teammates, but her most cherished time in the water was the years she competed in the United States Olympic Trials, and qualified in 2012.
"That was something I can never duplicate," Peacock said. "That was just amazing. If I could swim on Team USA every year, and make the team every year, I would. That is probably what kept me going."
Peacock considered the idea of swimming after graduation, but figured it was time to find a job.
Memories of when she swam in a warm-up lane with Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, and chatted by the pool with Ryan Lochte, 11-time Olympic medalist, made it a difficult decision to hang up the torch.
She said she would miss the competitive spirit that came with swimming the most.
"When you're on a college team or Team USA, it just adds a different component to it," Aubrey said. "It just adds so much to the sport."
Aubrey said she will also miss proving people wrong, such as the doctors who told her she would need several months to heal from her spinal fracture. She cut the time in half.
"I'm one of those people that when you tell me I can't do something, I'm like 'Watch me,'" Aubrey said.
Aubrey said she still gets in the pool once a week, and still hangs around the Auburn swimming and diving team. She works 20 hours a week for the Auburn athletics department to keep her fifth-year scholarship.
"I work with the captains," Aubrey said. "I was captain last year, so whatever they need, I kind of understand it. I help out with that and recruiting. I still hang out with all the teammates. You become family."
After she graduates in December with a business marketing degree, she said she wants to do marketing for television.
"I would love to work for SEC Network, ESPN, Time Warner, Fox, pretty much anything that has to do with television I am really passionate about," Aubrey said. "The way you can use a program to market to the consumer and attract them to your program. I think that's really cool."
Aubrey went to her first summer league practice where she swam butterfly for the first time because a friend invited her.
Her friend ended up quitting, but Aubrey stayed with it, and found out something about herself, something rare. Swimming taught her a constant awareness of how she feels, both physically and mentally.
"I think the deal is your looking at this certain level of swimmer, and to get to that level most of them have had to have a great amount of body awareness," Susan said. "Obviously there are ones that have more than others. I think they just learn to know what their body needs, and they get better if they know how to do that."
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
