The Tribune


By Brent Stubbs

ARIANNA Vanderpool-Wallace is a product of the St Andrew’s High School, where she grew up competing for the Barracuda Swim Club. She eventually left at the age of 14 to go to boarding school in the United States, where she earned an athletic scholarship to attend Auburn University.

There Vanderpool-Wallace earned her degree in Hospitality Management and excelled as a member of the Tigers women’s swim team where she claimed numerous All-American honours and in 2011 was named the Southeastern Conference Female Swimmer of the Year.

During her career, Vanderpool-Wallace has been a part of a number of firsts for the Bahamas, including teaming up with Nikia Deveaux, Alana Dillette and Alicia Lightbourne to win the Bahamas’ first medal at the Pan Pacific Games - a bronze in the 4 x 100m medley in 2007 after the Brazilian team was disqualified for a doping violation by one of its team members.

Individually, in 2008, Vanderpool-Wallace became the youngest Bahamian ever to qualify for an Olympic Games when she earned the right to travel with the team to Beijing, China, just days before her 18th birthday.

She became the first Bahamian female to make the final of a FINA World Championship event when she advanced in the 50m freestyle in Shanghai, China, in 2011.

Now a professional athlete, Vanderpool-Wallace said she would like nothing better than to return to the medal podium for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, hopefully with the gold.

But for now, she still has some unfinished business in Scotland as she gets ready for the final of the 100m freestyle at 4.14pm EST today to bring the curtain down on her historic performance here.