While Middle School swimmer Greta Myers—class of ‘27—is one of the best swimmers that our Middle School swim team has seen, she did not choose to take up the sport on her own. The summer after kindergarten, Myers joined a summer swim team, begrudgingly since her parents had pushed her to join the team. Later on, when she started going to year-round swimming in third grade, she also did not want to go to swim practices. Eventually, however, she just got used to the routine. Even now, Myers occasionally doesn’t want to train, but she does clarify that she feels a different kind of unwillingness. “There are some days I still don’t want to go,” Myers starts. “But, I have gotten to know myself more during swimming. Like when I was nine years old I didn’t know what I would become as a swimmer. It’s a different kind of ‘I don’t want to go.’”

From this reluctant beginning, Myers has developed to breaking the school’s 100-yard butterfly record last year as a seventh grader. At the time, that race was her fastest fly time at 58 seconds; now her personal record is 57 seconds. Jan Allen—head coach of the Westminster Middle School swim team—noted the previous swimmer who had the record now has made Olympic trials qualifying cuts and swims at Stanford. “That butterfly record was set by a swimmer Nicole Stafford, who ended up going on to swim at Stanford and have Olympic trial qualifying cuts, and someone who swam at NCAA,” Allen says. “And so to break that record is amazing in 7th grade. And for that [record] being her 1st year at Westminster, she really was an impact member of our team.” Looking back at last season, Myers remembers feeling excited and happy to represent Westminster in a sport and be a part of a team. 

Although Myers does swim for Westminster, she also spends around two hours every day swimming for her club team, which she also has to balance with school work and other non-school activities. Outside of school and swimming, she makes time to play piano and cello, taking lessons for them once a week. On the subject of homework, Myers recognizes that she gets stressed about the amount but always manages to use her time well and get the work done. “I think it’s sometimes a struggle and I definitely get stressed. But I manage to get all of the work done, but sometimes I have to skip swim practice,” Myers states. “Sometimes I have definitely thought about my homework during swimming. Like what I would write in my paragraph or study for Spanish.”

While Myers does get occasionally overwhelmed by homework, she still consistently goes to practice with her year-round team. Currently, Myers’s year-round team is Swim Atlanta, although she has recently just switched from US Aquatics. Myers notes that the transition has been weird, but she is adjusting well to her new team. “I know people, so it’s not that I’m lonely. It’s just in terms of seeing my old coach or my old teammates,” Myers states. “I needed to go, it’s just the whole thing kind of played out weird because a lot of people left from my old team to my new team.” 

Because Myers works hard at her year-round swim team, she tries to go to Westminster Middle School swim practice once a week, usually on Mondays. The Middle School swim team and Swim Atlanta’s schedules work out well as there is an hour in between both practices. However, both Allen and Myers stated that the Middle School swim team has a shorter season and shorter practices, so if she had to choose which swim team to swim on, Myers believes that she would have to quit the Middle School team. “The Westminster season is so short and the club is more important and I guess can get you places,” Myers comments. “School swimming is still so much fun. How I think of it is school swimming is more fun, just have fun and at the club, I try to do more of my best swimming.”

While swim practice may be pretty relaxed, at swim meets Myers has more habits to do her absolute best. Before swim meets, she likes to stretch, eat granola bars, and drink energy drinks—Gatorade and Liquid IV. She also notes that during a day with two swim meets she likes to take naps. “In year-round swim meets, sometimes you swim in the morning to try and qualify for the finals [that afternoon]; in between those I normally take a nap,” Myers states. “I’m pretty sure it helps me. Sometimes I am really tired and I just fall asleep.”

Even though the Westminster Middle School 2022-2023 swim season has not yet had a swim meet, the season already is going great. According to Allen, this year’s team is the biggest team since eight or ten years ago with 93 swimmers and divers signed up. Myers feels like the start of the season is a bit different from last year because she was new last year and didn’t know anyone on the team. Now, she is friends with many swimmers on the team and is glad that she knows how regular practice works. “I guess last year I didn’t know what to expect and this year I feel more prepared,” Myers says. “And I am excited about it.”

This year’s swim season is not the last you will see of Myers, as she is very hopeful about her future with swimming. Myers dreams of going to the Olympics, noting that in the near future she hopes to make enough time cuts to get into national swimming events. “My dream is to go to the Olympics. And that just starts with getting certain time cuts to go to national swimming events which should happen in the near future,” Myers states. “I also want to swim and compete against other college swim teams in college.”