Chasing the Dream: What a Decade of High-Performance Swimming Really Taught Me
The alarm blares, a familiar sound cutting through the pre-dawn darkness. It’s 4:30 AM, and the world is still asleep, but for me, it’s time to dive into a cold pool. For over a decade, this was my life. This was the world of high-performance swimming, a world of sacrifice, relentless discipline, and a singular, all-consuming dream: the Olympics.
There’s a feeling you get when you’ve done the work. Standing on the starting block, the crowd buzzing, your heart pounding, you know what’s coming. The nerves are there, but they’re not crippling. They’re a spark. They excite you. In those moments, I felt unstoppable. In the beginning, I used to think this feeling came from my talent, but I later realized it was born from something far more valuable: relentless preparation.
That desire to compete was my initial fuel. From the moment I first saw Michael Phelps dominate in 2008, all I wanted was to race. My early years were a mix of swimming, theater, and other hobbies. I trained just three times a week, and the progress came so fast. Getting my first national medal felt incredible. I soon qualified for the junior national team and started to taste what was possible. It was a natural progression, a slow build of commitment that shifted into high gear once I enrolled in a student-athlete program in high school. My ambitions grew, and so did my dedication.
The real shift came when I left home. To pursue my Olympic dream, I moved to the national training base in Tenero, Switzerland, and later, to Norway. My training regimen exploded. What was once five or six sessions a week turned into 11 swims and three gym sessions. Add to that altitude camps, travel, and constant competition. I was living and breathing swimming. My world narrowed, and everything I did was to achieve that one specific goal. Looking back, leaving my family and country was one of the biggest sacrifices I made. At the time, it felt necessary, justified by the magnitude of my purpose.
High-performance sport is a masterclass in the mental game. It taught me that talent gets you noticed, but discipline gets you to the finish line. I developed skills that went far beyond the physical: resilience, focus, strategic thinking, and project management, just to name a few. My mindset shifted from blaming others to taking ownership of my performance. I will never forget my dad’s words once when I got frustrated and started to shift the blame: “Stop being a victim. Every ‘no’ you get is one less towards the next ‘yes’.” That single piece of advice fundamentally changed how I approached every setback.
But the most difficult moment came in 2021. After years of relentless training and sacrifice, I fell short of my goal to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. I had planned for everything that could happen after the Games, except for this. Watching my friends compete from the sidelines was a bitter pill to swallow. Everything I had worked for was suddenly up in the air. I faced a choice: quit or push on. I chose to push, to stretch my career as far as I could, but, even with a new environment and renewed motivation, the results just weren’t there. I had given it my all, and in 2024, I knew it was time to hang up my suit. It wasn’t a failure; it was the completion of a journey.
Today, the pool is no longer my office, but the lessons remain. Swimming was a medium, a vehicle for learning about life. I emerged from it a better human, armed with an unwavering belief that anything is possible with commitment. The friendships forged through blood and sweat will last a lifetime, and the feeling of winning a hard-fought race will stay with me forever.
My advice to the next generation of athletes? Never lose sight of the fun. A happy athlete is a successful one. And remember, the sport is what you do, but the lessons you learn are who you become.
Short Summary of the main highlights year per year
2008-2009
First season, learning the basics of every stroke and how to train in a group.
2009-2010
Enter the B group, first medal at age group nationals
2010-2011
End of secondary school, building up to the student-athlete program in highschool
2011-2012
Freshmen in Highschool, qualifying for the junior national team
2012-2013
First year in the national team, qualifying for the european junior championships in Poznan (POL), Swiss junior champion.
2013-2014
Senior year of highschool, qualifying for my second european junior championships.
2014-2015
First season at the CST in Tenero, training under Luka Gabrilo. Training up to 11x in the water and 3x in the gym
2015-2016
Difficult start to the season with a fractured hand, still medaled at the short course nationals. Qualifying for my first elite European championships in London.
2016-2017
Moved to Norway. Started to train under Joacim Lilleåsen in Lambertseter. First national elite title both in Switzerland and in Norway. Qualified at the 2017 Summer world university games in Taipei, where I ended up 17th overall.
2017-2018
Started my BSc at Unidistance.ch. Qualified for the Short course European championships and broke the swiss record of the 100m breaststroke there. Broke it again in Lausanne a week later.
2018-2019
Qualified for the Short course World championships in Hangzhou (CHN). Swam under the cut for the World Championships in Gwangju (ROK) but only one spot available.
2019-2020
Qualified for the European Championships. COVID hit and abruptly ended that season.
2020-2021
Participated at the European championships in Budapest, but failed to qualify for the Olympics.
2021-2022
Military service in Switzerland as a sport soldier. Transitioning into the next olympic cycle.
2022-2024
My run for the 2024 olympics in Paris. While giving it my all and taking care of every possible performance factor, the results didn’t reflected my training and commitment. I fell short of the Paris Olympics and decided to retire as an athlete.