The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

VERY seldom do you get to see swimmers stick around and remain as competitive as Ariel Weech, even after undergoing surgery on her shoulders that could have signalled the end of her career.

Although that was one of a series of setbacks, Weech managed to return to make her fourth Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, last month. Now she’s committed to going all the way and making her initial Olympic Games team in 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.

“I had shoulder surgery and I was out for a while,” said Weech, who turns 28 on October 28. “I missed competing and I didn’t think that I peaked, so I wanted to give myself another chance to reach my full potential.

“I still don’t think that I am there yet because I’m stronger and faster than I ever was and I’m paying more attention to my recovery so that I won’t sustain the injuries that kept me out of the sport before.”

With a really supportive coach in Jorge Rodriquez and the local Alpha Swim Club of which she is a member, Weech said she feels she has all of the tools to continue as she made her comeback for her fourth Pan Am team, following appearances in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2007, Guadalajara, Mexico in 2011 and Toronto, Canada in 2015.

After graduating from St Augustine’s College in 2009, Weech went on to compete for the University of Nebraska Huskies up until 2014 where she made it to the Big Ten Conference Championships and the NCAA Division One Women’s Championships.

Now stronger and more competitive, Weech, who is a twin to Amber (no longer swimming), said she’s not concerned at all when she faces the younger competitors, who are in their prime around 17 to 21 years of age. “I was able to get back into the competition because of my strength and my ability to manage the injuries,” Weech stressed.

“I’m very experienced competing in international meets and I trust the work that I put in with my coach.

“Whatever comes out of it, I have to be happy and not let anything get me down. What keeps me going is the fact that I know I can do better than I’ve done before, so I really want to see how far I can go.”

Part of the plan in the future is to compete in at least one Olympic Games and 2020 in Tokyo, Japan, is on Weech’s agenda.

“I took a little break from Lima, but I’m not getting back into it and I hope that I can make it next year,” Weech said. “I hope that I can see some of the younger swimmers whom I competed with (on the team) in Lima on the team in Toyko.

“I hope that the swimmers can stick to it the way I did. That’s the only way that we can continue to develop the sport. We have to keep with it.”

Should she be fortunate enough to make Team Bahamas next year in Tokyo, Weech said she will look at the possibility of continuing to compete. If she’s not successful, she could end up calling it quits.

“I can’t stop what God has already predestined for me,” she said. “I will just continue on the best way I know how. I would really like to make the Olympic team, but we will see how it goes.”

Unlike when she was competing at a younger age, Weech said there were not that many competitors who were on course to push the sport further. She’s glad to know that as she returns to the sport, there are some there now competing on the international scene.

“We have some very talented swimmers now. I have to mention Laura Morley. She has been with me the last two Pan American Games in Lima and Toronto as my room-mate,” Weech stressed.

“She has progressed into a very fine young athlete. She’s the closest one in age to me, but it makes me hopeful that swimming has a bright future with these swimmers competing and so she’s glad to be involved with them.”

Now a nursing student at the University of the Bahamas when she’s not training, competing or assisting in coaching at Alpha Aquatics, Weech specialises in the 50 and 100m freestyle.

In Lima, she only contested the 50m free where she made it to the B final, placing fifth in 26.48 for 13th place overall. Her qualifying time was 26.84 with her sixth-place finish in her heat for 17th overall.

She was hoping to go for at least the B qualifying time of 25.51 for Tokyo but fell short. The A standard is 24.77.

However, she teamed up with Morley and sisters Lillian and Margaret Albury Higgs to compete in the women’s 4 x 100m free and 4 x 100m medley relays, as well as team up with Lillian Higgs, Jared Fitzgerald and Gershwin Greene in the mixed 4 x 100m free.

In all three relays, the Bahamas made it to the final, but neither team made it on the podium.

Weech said she was just delighted to be able to swim on the relay teams and hopes that she can do it again in Toyko.

“It was nice to have three other women out there with them. We got a chance to compete in the relays,” she said. “We were not just competing for ourselves, but we had three other women to compete with so we didn’t want to let the entire Bahamas down.

“Back then when I was competing, we didn’t have a relay team. But now we even had a male relay team at the Pan Am Games, so it was good to see that too. Plus, I got to swim in a mixed relay with the men, which was even more exciting.”

The excitement for Weech will continue if she qualifies for the Olympics.