For me, sports is an unbeatable teaching of values. When I started to walk I practised karate, horse riding... a little of everything, although without competing. It has made me much stronger as a person and it has helped me to understand the big difference between losing and stop winning.
Losing is to give up or not to dare to try, while to stop winning is just not getting (momentarily) what you pursue. But it has also taught me to dare to win and fight every day to be a little better. Never settle and always strive for excellence in what I do. Somehow, sport has taught me to live life to its fullest.
I started swimming with a life jacket because I had never known how to swim well, much less without mobility or no feeling in my legs. Almost from the beginning, I saw that moving through the water was good for me. They put a timer in front of me and I checked that the timer stopped faster and faster.