I am proud to represent Georgetown University through swimming!
Growing up I represented the Rose Bowl Aquatics National Team in Pasadena, California. We travelled to some pretty amazing places including trips to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Florida, Indiana, Texas, Las Vegas, Tennessee, Arizona, and even Croatia.
My senior year of high school I was blessed to have the opportunity to commit to swim for Georgetown, which I happily accepted right away. While I had no idea what the second semester of senior year would hold, there is no other group of people that I would have been able to handle that time with then the support system of my current Georgetown teammates. The coaches and current team reached out constantly, always making sure we incoming freshmen were doing alright both physically and mentally during the thick of the pandemic.
This first semester with the swim team has been a crazy time! Because we were not allowed on campus this Fall, it was important to continue training, so we purchased memberships to a nearby pool so that workouts could be completed. We safely kept our distance while practicing in small groups (roommates), making sure to respect social distancing rules while trying to be as much of a team as possible. The journey has not been easy. Often times getting a ride to the pool is most of the battle, as the facility is 25 minutes away and each roommate has a different academic schedule, meaning often times one car is not sufficient. This means a lot of pricey Uber rides along with some long lonely practices.
While training this Fall semester has in no way been easy, it has tested our limits beyond what we had ever had to endure before. Swimming itself is already a grueling sport, so without having a facility, coach, or teammates makes it infinitely more difficult. The struggles we have had to overcome has led us to be more thankful for the aspects of swimming that we had previously taken for granted, such as having a coach to explain sets and watch us, teammates to cheer you on and be by your side, competitions to train for, and even having a pool to call home. Despite the difficult semester, we have been working so hard both physically and mentally in order to be as positive as possible so that whenever we are able to get together as a team in the future, we will be ready. This time has pushed our boundaries beyond anything we had ever thought was possible, and I personally have realized how much I truly love the sport of swimming and could not function without it. I love my team so much and I am so proud of the positivity that we bring to the difficult circumstances that we go through each day to get as much done in the water as possible.
