to make an Olympic splash
Salpointe swimmer is hoping
to make an Olympic splash
Photo by Darragh Heenan, Special to the Arizona Daily Star Scott Gaskins says participating in the Olympics is the "biggest goal of my life." |
By Ariel Neuman
Special to The Arizona Daily Star
With goals of making the U.S. Olympic team in the year 2000, Scott Gaskins is not your average high school swimmer.
Gaskins, Salpointe Catholic High School's star competitor, has won numerous competitions throughout his swimming career.
Gaskins, 18, has been a competitive swimmer since age 6, when his brother Karl suggested swimming because, as Scott puts it, "no other sport worked."
Gaskins soon became involved with the Hillenbrand Aquatics program at the UA. It was there that he met his current coach, Paul Steinway.
Gaskins describes Steinway as "phenomenal, a father figure who has always been there for me."
Gaskins has nine training sessions a week: 5:30 a.m. "Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and every afternoon Monday through Saturday.
Gaskins has his sights set on the Olympics. He describes it as "the biggest goal of my life," and plans on taking everything "one step at a time."
He has accomplished all of his swimming successes while maintaining a place on the honor roll with a full schedule at school. His course lineup includes finite trigonometry, politics/government, American literature, a religion course on lifestyles, honors Spanish and his personal favorite, advanced biology. He hopes to pursue a major in marine biology while taking advantage of his swimming scholarship to the University of Arizona next year.
Gaskins' hero is Chad Carvin, who had to leave swimming in 1996 because of a heart condition, but who is now training again and preparing for the World Championships. The "intense passion" that Gaskins describes in Carvin is evident in his own personality.
Gaskins is, as he describes it, "always swimming," with little time for other activities.
He feels that he has been given the means to reach the
Olympics, and he plans to forge ahead, one stroke at a time.
Ariel Neuman is a senior at University High School.
Darragh Heenan is a senior at Salpointe Catholic High School.