Every two years swimmers gather in South America to compete in the South American Championships. The tradition of this competition dates back to 1918 when the first unofficial meet was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This year’s event will occur in Cali, Colombia, and Azura is very well represented with 6 swimmers from 5 different countries.
Article written by Coach Melany Chacon
The last time swimmers ventured to Cali for the championships was 64 years ago! Not only does it excite the locals, but it also brings new opportunities for the Azura Swimmers who are attending from September 30th-October 3rd for swimming, and October 5th-7th for Open Water. Each swimmer will be representing their country of origin: Freddy Alejandro Arevalo will be representing Colombia, Ornella Giuliano will represent Uruguay, Mario Granizo will be representing Ecuador, Cielo Peralta will represent Paraguay, Adrian Ywanaga will represent Peru, and Maximiliano Paccot will represent Uruguay.
Although the Southamerican Championships are considered a higher-level meet, these six swimmers will go through what most swimmers experience before a meet–pre-meet preparation which might differ from swimmer to swimmer, but mostly consists of “getting in the right mindset” before the competition.
As a coach who has taught age group swimmers for three years, I noticed that swimmers new to meets often feel anxious about competing.
Therefore, I was able to converse with some of the athletes attending the South American Championships to ask them the following questions:
What are you anticipating the most from this meet?
Ornella: “My expectations in this meet are [to] enjoy the competition, meet new people, gain experience since it is my first competition at the open level, reunite with my national team, and do my best to leave my country at the top.”
Adrian: My expectations are to be able to perform at my best in all my events, and show the fruits of my training, lower my times…I would also like to get to know the country, and meet new people.
Cielo: “For the South American championships, my goal is to improve my times and leave the name of my country high. Also, [it] is a big opportunity to gain experiences and enjoy the moment. And the most important, get off the pool after my race, and know that I gave [it] my best.”
Alejandro: “For this competition, I hope to be able to raise the name of my country, give it my all, learn, grow, and broaden my vision of this sport, and the high level that remains to be reached”
Mario: “For this competition, I expect to perform better than before, and to improve my personal times, and gain experience on this high-level competition.”
What are your pre-meet plans both physically, and mentally?
Ornella: “My [physical] and [mental] plans before this competition were to follow each practice in the best way, enjoying both in the water and outside [the water], trusting my coaches, and most important trusting myself. [Mentally] My psychologist guided me to enjoy every step to reach the goal, without necessarily focus on the goal itself but on the process to get there.”
Adrian: “My plans were to continue training both outside and inside the water, to be able to arrive at the competition in the best possible way, and to be mentally focused on the race since I earned my spot to represent my country Peru in Cali.”
Cielo: “Preparation in training is something very important that we worked all these previous days, but the importance of the mental work is something fundamental. The mind is as important as the body.”
Alejandro: “It was to give it all in my training, always visualizing what I will compete in, to demand more from myself each day together with my teammates, and to seek to grow athletically.”
Mario: “My pre-meet plan was to train hard in the water and outside the water, was the physical part that I train every time we finish practice and mentally just not to overthink about it.”
What pre-meet advice would you give for swimmers who are new to swim meets, or who might be anxious about competing?
Ornella: “The only thing that I can say is to focus on the present, and not [what] is going to happen later, or what happened before. Enjoy everything [that] is happening right now; enjoy the moment and always smile!”
Adrian: “A competition is something very important, but we should not focus on the fact that if we do badly the world falls apart. The competition is not with those in the other lanes, it is with yourself, and if in case you do not manage to perform as you expected, it is not the end of the world, if you give up, that makes you the loser. A winner is someone who, no matter how many times he/she falls, always gets up. So, give it all and enjoy this competition.”
Cielo: “Trust your training. The process took you to this moment, your body is prepared for this. Emotions and nerves are normal, but you have to know how to control [them]. The important thing is enjoying the process, and the experience, the competitions are where you see the results of [your] hard work.”
Alejandro: “To trust in themselves, if they know they have worked hard, they just have to give it their all when competing, there is nothing more satisfying than giving it their all and also to enjoy every moment of the competition, and of the training process.”
Mario: “My advice for swimmers that are very anxious when competing is just not to think if you are going to do good or bad. If you did your work at your best, you should not be worrying about everything. Enjoy every moment at the competition with your friends or meeting new people.”
