Year 13 student Genevieve Watson excels in the sport of swimming where she qualified for the National Championships for the Special Olympics Swimming Team.

Genevieve has been swimming since she was six months old and she started competing when she was 12 years old. In 2019 she joined the Special Olympics swimming team as well as still swimming as part of a club in North Canterbury.

Genevieve attended the regional Special Olympics swim meet where she won 8 gold medals which qualified her for the National Championships. Unfortunately, due to Covid this event has been postponed to December 2022. Here is a picture of Genevieve with her 8 medals!!

Her favourite Events are the 100m Freestyle and the 200m Individual Medley, so she favours distance over sprints. This requires a lot of training and commitment. Currently, Genevieve is training two nights a week and this will increase around competition time!

When I asked Genevieve what her goals are in swimming, she stated that she would love to go to the World Championships that are scheduled to be held in Berlin in 2023. What an amazing achievement and experience that would be! To do so, Genevieve would need to place 1st or 2nd in all of her events at Nationals. We wish you all the best in achieving these goals, Genevieve!