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Mia, recently competed in an extraordinary 25 heats/finals across the county championships
Mia’s outstanding performance solidifies her as one of the event’s most decorated swimmers with 5 golds, 1 silver, and 2 bronze medals.
We recently caught up with Mia to discuss a triumphant day at the County Championships:
How do you handle the pressure of competing in multiple heats and finals throughout the event?
Physically, I try to stay hydrated and fuelled by eating lots of small nutritious snacks and drinking water or milk throughout the day, especially between heats and finals.
Mentally, I try not to think about the next race until I'm in the marshalling area for that race. Then I plan my race tactics.
Which race do you feel was your most challenging, and how did you overcome any obstacles you faced?
The 1500m! It’s such a long race, it was mentally challenging to work out how to swim it, and physically challenging to stick to my race plan. I found that what worked was sticking to the same pace the whole way through and then sprinting the last 25m worked for me. I was able to pace myself well and managed to beat some people who had gone out too fast at first.
How do you manage the balancing act between your academic responsibilities and your commitment to swimming? In what ways does RMS provide support to help you navigate this?
I have to be very disciplined to fit in training, competing, schoolwork and homework, as well as other school sports practice and fixtures
This means that I have to fill all my spare time with homework. RMS lets me miss some swimming PE lessons to catch up with work, and teachers have been understanding about giving me extra time for homework.
Looking forward, what are your goals and aspirations for the future?
I have been selected to represent the East Division of the English Schools Swimming Association in the National Inter Divisional Championships next month. So I hope to represent RMS to the best of my ability in that. Then it’s London Regionals, and I am targeting backstroke and IM for English Nationals and hopefully British Nationals, both in the summer. If I do well at all of these, there is a chance I might be picked to represent England in the International School Sport Federation Gymasiade 2024, being held in Bahrain this year. One day, I would love a GBR hat with a Union Jack and my name on it!
Congratulations to Mia on her exceptional achievements, we look forward to witnessing her continued success and growth in the future.