With the Olympics right around the corner, and all the new “thank you mom” ads coming out, I thought about what it takes to become an elite athlete and chase the Olympic dream.

I caught up with two amazing swimmers who are up and coming nationally-ranked athletes. One is named Christina Bradley. She goes to Skyline High School, is only a freshman and has a bright future in swimming. Her favorite events are backstroke and the individual medley, where you are tested in all the strokes, starting with butterfly, then backstroke, breaststroke and finishing with freestyle. The other is named Ivan Graham, a sophomore swimmer from Redmond, whose favorite events are breaststroke and butterfly.

Both of these accomplished swimmers had the opportunity to attend the diversity select camp this month. This is not a camp that you can just pay some money to attend. The swimmers qualify with fast times. Of this group, many apply and fewer are accepted.

Only two other swimmers from Washington they are aware of attended. One was from Seattle and the other from Spokane. There were only about 48 participants, and both Ivan and Christina said it was a great experience to be able to meet Olympians and get training from the very best coaches in the United States.

Ivan and Christina have a very strict and rigorous training regimen. They train daily for three hours, and even have two a day, twice a week during school sessions. This means for two days they wake up at get to the pool by 5:30 a.m. so they have enough time to swim for 90 minutes before school starts.

During the summer, they add long course training at Colman pool in Seattle, which requires more travel time. To accomplish this training, their parents arrange carpools, and Ivan and Christina said this commute provides an opportunity to get homework done and helps with team bonding. They only really get a few weeks off per year.

They said they are given three weeks between seasons at the end of the summer, but school swim team cuts into that, so it is whittled down to one week. They both said staying up late is not an option. They do get to celebrate Christmas out of the pool, however, so that week is kept pretty dry.

All in all, to get times down to these fast paces, it requires an enormous amount of dedication and practice.

Christina said the highlight of the camp was being coached by experienced professionals who could pick out each individual’s patterns and knew what to focus on immediately with each athlete. She said they helped her set goals to keep a fast pace while maintaining her stroke.

Ivan really enjoyed the guest speakers that taught the swimmers how to overcome challenges in life and how to accomplish greatness and be a leader to those around them. Both said nutrition was highly encouraged by all their coaches, reminding them to hydrate during workouts, and eat healthy, well-balanced meals in general, so they can perform to the best of their abilities.

The swimmers had a chance to see the movie “The Last Gold,” which is an independent film featured this year in the LA Film Festival about the U.S. Olympic female swimming team. The U.S. team was faced with East German swimmers who were unfairly doping for an athletic advantage.

The U.S. team bonded together, and accomplished the gold, by giving their best as a relay team to gather up a medal for the United States, a truly amazing heroic story about winning against all odds.

And that story touches home too, as one of those champion swimmers is Sammamish resident Wendy Boglioli (55.81). The others include Kim Peyton (56.95), Jill Sterkel (55.78), Shirley Babashoff (56.28) and Jennifer Hooker (3:44.82).

We are proud to know these two swimming greats from our community and look forward to seeing where their swimming wakes lead.

Amy McOmber is a 22-year resident of the Sammamish plateau.