For our latest “Sport: In Focus” we turn to the swimming pool where you’ll often find Year 8 Alex. She explains why she loves swimming and some of her fantastic successes in the pool.

“Hi! I am Alex, and I am a competitive swimmer at Hounslow Jets.

I currently do swimming training 9-10 times a week, as well as doing other sports such as water polo at school. Most of my sessions are 1-2 hours but sometimes they can last up to 3 hours. Even though sometimes the sessions are extremely challenging, I still love doing it because I am a very competitive person and I just enjoy being in the water. I always wanted to do swimming at a high level, although I didn’t start doing competitions until I was 9 years old. However, even before this I would always beg my mum to take me to swimming lessons with my siblings even though they are 6 years older than me.

Currently I swim at Regional level and I have made it into the top 3 in London in some of my best events. I would recommend swimming to everyone, it’s physically demanding, but very satisfying to win medals and hit PBs and I’ve made lots of friends both in my squad and amongst my competitors. The other positive is I get to travel for galas; pre-Covid I enjoyed swimming in the Welsh Nationals and the Maltese Internationals where I won 9 medals. This year I am aiming to compete at the English and British nationals!”

Good luck, Alex!