Madison Winstead has no business competing in college athletics, according to the rules.
The high school senior may have been recruited onto the University of Kentucky Wildcats swim team, but she won't officially be a freshman until the fall.
Still, provisions were made for her to compete alongside her future Kentucky teammates this week, and the rules were bent for the best reason.
Winstead's mother, Shane, was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer in January 2015. Since then, the illness has spread to Shane's lungs. By the time the next collegiate season rolled around, there's no telling if Shane would have been able to go to Madison's first college swim meet.
Fortunately though, Kentucky let Madison compete early, allowing the swimmer to give her mother one of the best gifts possible. Check out the video above for the full story.
Citations: Student allowed to compete in swim meet early to honor dying mother (TODAY), Cancer-stricken mom gets to watch high school daughter swim for UK (Lexington Herald-Leader)
