Waking up at 4 am to jump into the chilling water of the pool, just another morning as a swimmer, too practice for hours on end with limbs that feel like noodles.
“Get up, put on your suit in like five minutes, eat breakfast and get in the pool at about 4:20. At practice I do a warm up and swim for about an hour, then do a timed race and about fifteen [minutes] of dry land. You have no idea how hard it is to get out of a warm bed and into the cold pool,” said sophomore, Christin Swanepoel.
Swimming is one of the most competitive sports out there. The average swimmer swims about nine times a week including twice in the early morning. This intense schedule, leaving little time for school work and social events, will help drive them to their goals of being a swimmer at the highest level. One example of the hard work of swimming paying off is Olympic gold-medalist swimmer, Katie Ledecky, who swims with Swanepoel.
“I’ve been on the same relay team as her, it was honestly really amazing. She impresses our whole team. Knowing that you have an athlete like [her] is on your team is an amazing feeling,” said Swanepoel.
Seeing what Ledecky has done only inspires Swanepoel to only work harder to achieve her dreams of being on the Olympic team as well. She is pushing herself now more than ever to cut time off her races and putting even more effort into her time in the pool.
”We don’t train next to each other in the pool or anything but we got to the same meets and have the same coaches, she still has a great attitude. She has only skipped 3 practices ever. She is so dedicated,” said Swanepoel.
Ledecky entered he sophomore year at her local high school and will continue training for the Olympics in Rio in 1216. While she is training she will have to keep up with all of her school work. That could be a lot to handle. Swanepoel wants to do everything that Ledecky has done and more during her career as a swimmer.
“What she has achieved, I can do that too, it just makes me want to work harder. She is so inspiring to me and is still the same person she was before, a really sweet girl,” said Swanepoel.
Everything she has done over the past few months has been a blessing and an inspiration to all of the Curl Burke swimmers and all young athletes. She has changed the expectations for teen athletes and all of America was completely behind her.
“She just shows that anything is possible regardless of your age. The girls she is swimming with are 18 [years old] and older,” said Swanepoel, “It’s what I’ve worked so hard for.”