Test Of Strength

John Keilman: The swimming pool was 3 feet deep, its surface lacquer smooth. But Taylor Bell, her eyes frozen behind her goggles, clung to the edge like a terrified starfish.

"If I let go," she thought, "I will drown."

Taylor had made it to the age of 10 on the South Side without knowing how to swim. Water was hostile territory. She grew nervous at the beach if waves so much as lapped at her ankles.

That's how it was with her mother, too, and that's how Taylor figured she would go through life. But then her family signed her up for Tri-Masters, a summer day camp that promised to whip any kid into good enough shape to tackle what some call the ultimate test of physical fitness: a triathlon.