RHS graduate awaits Olympic Trials in preparation for Summer Olympics

Bethany Rahn ‘22

STAFF WRITER

As the Olympics creep up on American athletes this summer, some have been waiting their whole lives for the opportunity to qualify and represent their country. One athlete, and a former Riverview student, Emma Weyant, has spent the past two years preparing for this opportunity of a lifetime.

Weyant has lived here whole life here in Sarasota and has swum with the Sarasota Sharks for her entire swimming career. Her biggest feats include representing the country by qualifying for the Junior National Swim Team, and swimming against various countries for Junior World Championships back in 2018. Weyant also made a huge name for herself by winning the 400 IM at the Toyota US Open back in 2019, which is a highly-recognized national championship meet where Olympians and US National Team members come to race. Weyant is also a National Team Member herself as of last year.

Although the Olympic Trials for swimming will look different this year, Emma is taking her best shot to get as far as she can in the trials this June.

“I’m really excited for Olympic Trials, and I feel really good right now about where I’m at. This will be my first trials, and even though it might look a little different, I’m really looking forward to it,” Weyant said.

Weyant got her first trials cut back in 2018, and she has been racking up more events to race ever since. She now has a total of six Olympic Trial cuts to be racing in this summer, and she is highly-ranked in most of her events. The 400 IM will certainly be a race to look for during the trials because Weyant is in the top five 5 best in the country for that event. She even has a shot at taking down the American record this summer.

Weyant recently graduated from Riverview in May, 2020, and she has a full ride to swim for the University of Virginia, but in order to prepare for the delayed Olympics, she decided to take a gap year and wait to join the rest of the class of 2020 recruits.

“Taking a gap year has allowed me to have much more consistent and familiar training during these uncertain times, and I’m still able to take classes from home which has been nice,” she added.

With the extra year being taken into account, one can certainly bet that the athletes competing this summer are more than ready to show the world what they’ve got, so this summer’s Olympics will surely be an event to remember!