Athena Liao, Urbana High School

 

When did you start swimming? How did you get started? What teams or clubs have you swum with?

My Dad plonked me in a pool when I was about 3, and I've been a member of Aquachiefs since I was 4.  I think I've swum with 3 teams in England (Cambridge, Colchester, and Braintree Swim Teams), and during the summer of 2006 I was with Swim Atlanta.  Other than that, it has just been Aquachiefs and UHS swimming.

 

Are you excited about your final year of swimming with your high school and the HEAT?

Well, in my situation, I wish I could be here another year because of my injury (unfortunately senior year brought with it knee surgery!)  So I'll have to make do with that.  I really wanted to make senior year my best one, but it looks like it might not be that way. (Although I'm still optimistic.)  So I'm not excited about this being my last year here, but I AM excited to be able to swim again.  I'm hoping things will get better later this year when I go back to HEAT.

 

How and when did you injure your knee?  When do you expect to back at 100%?

 

I injured my knee in March during PE class.  (Yeah, I know, that's really stupid.)  We were playing capture the football. I was running after someone, who changed direction really fast, so I turned, and my knee popped.  All my weight was on that leg so I fell and twisted it, so that's how I tore my ACL.  I will hopefully be back to 100% about 6 months after surgery, which means by mid-January.  Although I think it will probably be longer than that before I'm truly back to my previous form. 

 

What are your swimming goals for the year?

Make High School State, be back in shape/up to speed for State/Sectionals in the Spring during club swimming, and if it's AT ALL possible, go to Sr/Jr Nationals in the summer and finally make that Olympic Trial cut for 200 breast that I've been so close to for 3 years.

 

What are your college plans?  Will you swim?  What do you plan to major in?

I don't really know where I want to go to college yet, I'm considering both Division I and Division III universities.  But yes, I will definitely be swimming.  I'm thinking I will major in some sort of science, maybe in a type of engineering, but I'm really not sure which specific field yet.

 

What have you learned from swimming?

 

You really have to be willing to try hard in every practice, otherwise the effort is wasted.  I have had many times where I'd slack off because I was sore, tired, or hungry, and obviously that does not yield good results.  When you've been swimming almost everyday of your life, being lazy can cost a lot, and it's easy to go downhill.  A lot of people also include time management here, but I won't, because my time management is still pretty terrible.  I sometimes have trouble staying focused, and I get really distracted (makes it sound like I have ADD).  Although I don't think I've ever had a problem being focused in the water.  A coach once told me that I have a really good game face when I'm behind the block.

What is your favorite swimming memory?

That's a hard one...  I'd have to say when I was 10, my parents and I went to Hawaii so I could compete in a meet there.  Not only was the trip itself the BEST ever, but I swam really well, and every day of the meet I came first in an event, my Dad would buy me any ice cream I wanted... Ohh, the days when junk food made you swim faster...  In any case, I single-handedly managed to get Aquachiefs 17th place, out of about 40 teams.

 

What is your favorite event? Least favorite event?

My favorite event usually fluctuates, because I tend to make the event I'm good at my favorite.  So it used to be the 200 Breast, but because of my injury, I don't know how successful I can be at that again, so I guess right now it's 100 Breast, or... 50 FREE, whoo! My least favorite is probably 400 IM, because it takes a lot of endurance to be good at it, and you have to swim every stroke, so you have a lot to think about.  I also HATE 200 free, because it's basically an excruciatingly long sprint from start to finish. 

 

What's your favorite movie? Favorite food? Favorite place?

Finding Nemo!  I would've said Borat, just because I was one of the people who thought it was SO funny, but that wouldn't go down too well because I know some people are really offended by that movie. I don't have a favorite food, I eat almost everything.  I think chocolate is probably my guilty pleasure though. I don't really have a favorite place either, I love traveling, so going anywhere new would be exciting for me.  France might be my favorite country to visit, because for some unknown reason I love their culture, and I speak French rather well.

 

What 3 people would you invite to dinner?

This is such a random question that I always have problems answering, but I guess... Hugh Grant, Ming Tsai [who cooks on PBS on Saturdays =) ], and... my best friend, Hannah Radecki.

 

Tell us something about yourself that people might find surprising or interesting.

Well everyone makes fun of me because they think Asian + female = really bad driver, but this ISN'T the case for me.  I try and convince people of this all the time... On a more serious note though, I personally think it's pretty cool how many places my family and I have been.  For instance, when I was 14 we went and rode horses on a sunny day in the desert next to some Egyptian pyramids.