"It's a beautiful thing, diving into the cool crisp water and then just sort of being able to pull your body through the water and the water opening up for you"
About this Quote
The most revealing phrase is "the water opening up for you". Water doesn't open. It resists. Fraser is describing the athlete's fantasy of mastery: the moment when perfect technique turns an enemy element into a corridor. Subtext: the body becomes the tool, the mind becomes quiet, and the environment seems to cooperate. That's the addictive core of elite sport - not trophies, but the rare sensation that effort and physics briefly align.
Context sharpens it. Fraser came up in an era when women's athletic excellence was routinely patronized, and her own career was marked by defiance and controversy as much as dominance. So the softness here reads as its own flex: a champion allowing herself to talk about pleasure, not just grit. It also smuggles in a subtle credo. If you can make water "open up", you can make other closed systems yield too - governing bodies, social expectations, the narrow story of what a woman athlete is supposed to be.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Fraser, Dawn. (2026, January 15). It's a beautiful thing, diving into the cool crisp water and then just sort of being able to pull your body through the water and the water opening up for you. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-a-beautiful-thing-diving-into-the-cool-crisp-147610/
Chicago Style
Fraser, Dawn. "It's a beautiful thing, diving into the cool crisp water and then just sort of being able to pull your body through the water and the water opening up for you." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-a-beautiful-thing-diving-into-the-cool-crisp-147610/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It's a beautiful thing, diving into the cool crisp water and then just sort of being able to pull your body through the water and the water opening up for you." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-a-beautiful-thing-diving-into-the-cool-crisp-147610/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.




