Making Waves - Ethan Guo
Ethan Guo is a junior and varsity swimmer at Phillips Exeter Academy.
How did you get involved in swimming and what do you love the most about the sport?
I started swimming on my current club team Greenwood Swimming when I was seven. I had never liked swimming before that and was always hesitant to get in any pool and couldn’t pass many swim tests. At Greenwood, I first swam in the lowest-level group for about two years, but I found I enjoyed it and kept improving and moving up. My favorite aspect of the sport is how objective it is and how you can hold yourself accountable. I know I’m in control of each of my swims, so there’s a lot less worry about external factors. Being able to look at tangible statistics like times, stroke count, and stroke rate also makes identifying what I need to do to improve straightforward. I also love swimming for the people I have met and the friends I have made throughout the sport. In the past two years, I have traveled a fair amount for meets and trips so meeting kids from different regions and getting to race and train with new people is a lot of fun. At the same time, I often get to see friends from around New England in more local meets and even spend time with them outside of the pool. We have grown up together through the sport and the lasting friendships I have made are really special.
What are some of the obstacles you’ve faced along your athletic journey and how did you manage to overcome them?
I’ve luckily never had an incredibly serious injury, I missed about six weeks of swimming when I was ten because of a torn ligament, and about four weeks in 9th grade when I hurt my arm. Both times I had to make sure to emphasize letting my body fully recover. No matter how much I wanted to swim with the team or do anything active with my friends I had to restrain myself because the risk of getting re-injured or not healing properly was not worth getting back in the water a few days early. For every athlete, Covid was a huge obstacle to work around but I think I did well throughout that year. Our club team was lucky enough to have a pool to train at a few months after the shutdown, and I improved a lot that summer because I kept myself consistent. We had fewer practices because of the scheduling difficulties, so I had to make sure every time I was able to swim I was striving to get better and focusing on something specific. It taught me a lot about emphasizing quality and details in my swimming which I pride myself in today.
What and who inspires you to pursue swimming in high school and beyond?
What drives me through the sport is primarily self-improvement. Going back to the fact that swimming is very tangible, I’m always trying to identify what parts of my swimming I can improve, which is super satisfying to work on and keeps me invested in the sport. The main people who inspire me are not just professional swimmers, even though I do look up to the way they handle themselves at meets and how they race. it’s more swimmers I know and still talk to who are succeeding in their college careers or other aspects of their life which I admire. A lot of my club team friends are older than me so they now swim in college. I always enjoy seeing them when they come back to train over break and catching up with how they are doing in the pool and out of it. They have helped me understand how fun swimming stays even past high school and have made it a dream of mine to swim in college.
How has your athletic journey helped shape who you are today? How will it impact your future?
I think the most impactful thing swimming has done for me is building my work ethic and discipline. Small things like waking up early and managing my time around practices have become easier for me because I have done them so much already. Swimming has also helped me become a more supportive person. Because of the individuality of the sport, it can get mentally challenging which I have experienced, so I try my best to do whatever I can for my teammates. I can see myself maintaining these qualities throughout life and applying them to other aspects of life, even when I eventually stop swimming.
What advice do you want to give to other Asian student-athletes who want to pursue swimming or other sports in general?
My biggest piece of advice for other Asian student-athletes is to stay focused on yourself. A lot of pressure for Asian kids comes from being compared to others which can really mess with your mentality, especially in sports like swimming where comparing yourself to others is incredibly easy. It’s hard but try your best to avoid these comparisons if possible. Competition should be fun and help you make others better and vice versa; it shouldn’t loom over your head and make you feel worse about yourself. My favorite saying is “don’t focus on other people’s progress.” As long as you are trying your best and focusing on what you need to do to get better, it will come and you should be happy with what you achieve.
