By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – Normal Community senior Grace Ariola’s return trip to the World Junior Championships in swimming will be a much shorter one, geographically speaking.
After competing with Bloomington-Normal YMCA WAVES swim club teammate Melissa Pish in the FINA World Junior Championships in Singapore in 2015, Ariola will swim in the 2017 finals in Indianapolis Aug. 23-28.
Ariola qualified after finishing as the 18-and-under national champion in the 50-meter backstroke and later taking second in the 100 backstroke in the national finals last month.
Ariola has medals on her mind as she makes a return trip to the World Junior Championships.
“My goal there definitely is to win an individual medal because I’ve been to three of these international meets, but I haven’t won any individual medals,” Ariola said. “I’m definitely looking for that. I’m hoping to still drop some time.”
Ariola said she embraces the pressure.
“I like being in high pressure situations because it makes my adrenaline go and the races are a lot better,” Ariola said. “I like to have the find of pressure on. It’s more fun. It’s more real, it feels like.”
She credits her coaches, including WAVES coach Charlie Yourd for much of her success.
“He definitely makes me tougher just as a person,” Ariola said.
Ariola has been swimming since age seven when she apparently found her athletic calling.
“I was actually really bad at land sports and ball sports, I was really clumsy and had no hand-eye coordination,” Ariola said. “So I just saw swimming somewhere and I was like ‘that’s pretty easy I think I can do that’ and it just go started.”
Ariola added she doesn’t mind the 20 hours of week in the pool that are required for training.
“I like working hard,” Ariola said. “I like the pain that we feel a lot. I like the payoff of hard work. I just enjoy swimming. It’s kind of peaceful.”
Ariola recently accepted a scholarship to swim at the University of Texas.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
