Allyson Hilt has been on the Sunlake swim team since the start of the year, but has plenty of prior experience starting from age 5. Swimming had been a big thing in Ally’s family for years, as her older sister Lilian Hilt is also deeply involved in the sport and was once a part of the Sunlake swim team. Ally tries her hardest to be successful in her sport and does many things to ensure this. Success for swim athletes everywhere is a combination of mental resilience, goal setting, training, and self- confidence. 

Swim is a difficult sport that requires plenty of mental and physical preparation before doing anything in the water. In fact, training starts outside of the water where mental visualization is very important to Ally’s team, her coach, and Ally herself. Her coach consistently tells them that if they believe it, they can do it. This phrase encourages the athletes to never doubt themselves. Physical preparation is also extremely important as it prevents injuries and allows them to give their all to the team to achieve their full level of success.  

As Ally has been a swimmer for the majority of her life, her love for her sport remains because it gives her many physical advantages, some of these being keeping her in shape and enhancing her stamina. Ally shared that before competing in a swim competition, she takes time to visualize herself swimming and what she needs to do in order to do good and contribute to the team. A teammate of Ally’s, AJ Lucius said that “Ally does our distance swimming which gives us the advantage of gaining more points on the team.”   

Despite Ally’s love for swim, she did take time off for a few months to give herself time away from the stress, in Ally’s words, “of managing two things at once and wanted to be able to focus on school alone for just a little while.” Thankfully, she came back stronger and better than ever. Now that she is back in her rhythm, some of the things she does to stay charged are taking power naps before practice and making sure to eat healthy nutritious meals to maintain body health. 

Though not every time is a win, she still feels proud of herself and her teammates’ performances and looks forward to the next time she is able to be with her team and aim for the win next time.