Waking up every morning at 4:30 am to get into a cold pool, going to school for seven hours and then hopping back into the water again after school sounds like a recipe for disaster, but for student athlete and sophomore Waimea Barlow, this is an everyday routine. Since freshman year when she first joined the swim team, Barlow has been blowing away the competition in the pool. Here’s how she does it.
Being a star athlete does not happen overnight; it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get to a point where your presence on a relay team basically guarantees your team’s victory. Barlow has been in the pool since she was in preschool, and has swum competitively since 3rd grade. Her mother, Katri Barlow, is one of the coaches charged with overseeing practices on the Piranhas swim team, a club team that practices locally in North Ogden. It could be said that the sport runs in her blood. That is not to say that these record times came easily, though. “She never sits out,” says Henderson Bird, the coach for the swim team. “She always tries to lead by example–in the pool and out of the pool, she’s got drive.”
Barlow takes great care of her physical wellness, from eating well to (trying) to get plenty of sleep. “A day or two before a meet I try not to eat sugary foods like cake, and I eat lots of carbs,” she says. Without proper care, it is easy for the body to fall prey to illnesses, which would in turn impair the ability to perform to the best of one’s ability in a sport. This is especially true in athletes like Barlow, who work two times as many practices as their teammates. In order to keep her body properly fueled, it is imperative that she eats lots of protein, carbs, fruits and vegetables and gets around eight hours of sleep in a night. It is all about balance.
Like many student athletes, Barlow knows the struggle of juggling her sport, social life and school responsibilities. She says that it comes down to priorities. She makes an effort to make time for studying to keep those grades up, which she does in between her hours of swimming in a day. It may seem daunting, but despite the challenges, Barlow is a tightrope walker when it comes to balancing her life.
An important milestone for any swimmer comes at the end of the four-month season–region. The regional swim meet is the final one of the year–Feb. 3 this year–and is what all swimmers work to improve for during every preceding meet and practice. It is the cherry on top of the season, the icing on the cake–it could mean the difference between going to the state meet and not going. For Barlow, the region meet was just another opportunity to show off her skills. As a distance swimmer, Barlow’s main events are the 500 and 200 yard freestyle. She took first place in both events, hitting a personal record of 5:22.18 for her 500 and beating the region record for the 200 with a 1:57.92.
Now, Barlow only has a couple more weeks before one last hoop to jump through for her team: the state swim meet. State will be Feb. 23-24 at Brigham Young University. Weber wishes Barlow and the rest of the team the best of luck.