The long practices, the grueling sets, stopwatch ticking every hundredth of a second. For some, pools might conjure up images of carefree summers. But competitive swimmer Vivian Wang (12) associates pools with intense training, often occurring on cold winter mornings.

“The fun [of swimming] makes the painful practices better,” Vivian said. “Our coach punishes us when we go too slow, so if there was a set that we went too slow on, she would make us keep doing the set until we got it right. There was this one time that practice was extended by an hour because we couldn’t get it right, so it ended up being like four hours.”

But after substituting for a coach one day and learning to manage the younger swimmers, she understood the value of discipline from an instructor’s perspective.

“I don’t have any any siblings; let alone younger siblings. At first, I didn’t know how to control kids, so the first couple of days was an experience because they didn’t listen to me, and I’m not the type of person that yells and I’m super nice,” she said. “After a couple of days, I learned how to yell and they started listening. I felt really bad, but that was the only way.”

For Vivian, physical toughness translates to mental toughness. She races in events ranging from the 400m individual medley to the 50m freestyle. Her strength and versatility earned her a spot swimming for Princeton next fall — she signed in October.

“Swimming has definitely been a big part of me,” she said. “It’s much more than an exercise or a sport. It’s taught me a lot of things, and it’s really helped me become a tougher person, both in school and in life. There have been a lot of times where I’ve wanted to give up, but since the people surrounding you are still going and still trying to do better, you don’t want to be the one who’s on the wall resting. You just want to push yourself to be just as good.”

Through the years, she has learned to incorporate the team aspect into her individual routine.

“At first, I thought I was the type of person that doesn’t talk to people before my race because I need to focus,” she said. “But I have a couple of friends who talk a lot and like to talk before their races. I find myself getting more and more motivated if I talk to people who are motivated.”

Her team of around twenty swimmers motivates her through a combination of competition and encouragement. Outside the pool, they grow closer through volunteering together and organizing activities within her club.

“I’ve always enjoyed going to travel meets with my team because on the meets we hang out and bond and it’s a lot of fun. It’s nice to see that they have my support and that they support me too for meets. It’s competitive, but at the same time, it’s friendly competition,” Vivian said. “We have a team warm up, which gets us motivated. I guess you can say we try to motivate each other by saying, ‘You can do this. Don’t be scared; you trained for this.’ At the end of sets or in between sets, we give each other high fives, and if someone wants to give up, we tell them to keep going and to keep swimming.”

Jessica Wang (12), one of Vivian’s closest friends, appreciates her openness and cheerful personality.

“She’s really bubbly and she’s also super dedicated and hardworking to swimming and school work; she’s an inspiration to me. Your first impression of her would probably be she’s serious and introverted, but I also feel like she’s also really lighthearted too,” Jessica said. “She jokes around a lot; she’s not some serious person all the time.”

Additional reporting by Humans of Harker Managing Editor Melissa Kwan.