By Bong Lei Shan (21S03J), Captain, Lim Fang Yang (21S03G), Captain, Sarah Angelique Yip (21S06J), Vice-Captain, and Leow Li Shen (21S06J), Vice-Captain
“Fly, back, breast and free,” I swim therefore I am.
Swimmers are the only people who are allowed to say “I can’t feel the water” or “I came from training” at 7.30am. Walking around with bulky bags and dry blonde hair that reeks of chlorine, us swimmers are easily spotted wherever we go. The first thing that crosses your mind when you think about swimming is probably Joseph Issac Schooling’s momentous victory at the 2016 Olympics. Pride, honour and glory — these are all things that come with accomplishment, but no one can win without putting in the necessary effort.
The Raffles Swim Team comprises hardworking and disciplined Rafflesians that give their all in the water, to push their limits and fulfil their potential. While many other CCAs have training sessions two to three times a week, swimmers hit the pool for seven training sessions every week on average, in the morning, right before school, and in the evening, after school. Basically, we spend more than 15 hours in the pool in a week. So if we are a little dazed and confused in the morning, we are just tired, please bear with us. As a result, swimming has taught us the importance of time management and the need to stay focused. Our teachers-in-charge, Mr Chan, Ms Lee and Ms Siti, also go the extra mile to make sure that we are coping well in school.
Although swimming is an individual sport and most of us do not train together, being in a team helps us motivate one another to push on and do our very best. Having a team cheering their lungs out for you during a race is what gives us the drive to finish the last 25 meters or even the last 5 meters. Trust me, though we are in the water, we can hear you cheer.
The more prominent competitions that we take part in include the Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championship (SNAG) in March and the National School Games (NSG) in April. We also have other less significant ones and we make full use of any opportunities to track our training process and push our limits. In a nutshell, we are pretty packed with swimming competitions throughout the year.
We welcome anyone who has a competitive swimming background and official swim timings from previous competitions that meet the qualifying time for National School Games. We hope that you can come and join us!
