First year student, Maddie Brown makes her first swimming debut for the University of Gloucestershire at the BUCS Nationals where she made history.
Brown shocked herself over the weekend after a build-up of nerves where she had broken her own personal time.
“I did so well in my 50-meter fly. I dropped 0.01 on my 50-meter fly which I was so shocked about because I never thought I’d be able to drop on that. It is so hard to drop in a 50, and I did that.
“In swimming a milliscond’s matter so much. It can be touch in and then another touch in, and that is it.
“It is really weird because with 50’s it is the shortest distance you can do in a swimming competition, but it is the hardest thing to drop time on because it’s so quick.
“I remember just looking at the time and I was like ‘Yes!! I cannot believe I have just done that’. I was so happy”.
It was the first time the young swimmer had returned to a competitive environment for the first time since taking a break from the sport for just under a year.
Brown stated, “I actually stopped training in April of 2023 because I wanted to focus on my A-Levels alot more and I was unsure of how that would work with training and things.
“It was in summer where I did not train at all and had that typically ‘fun’ summer before University. When I came to Uni I always knew I wanted t get back into it.”
She continued, “When I was up here it was just very recreational, just doing it for fun. Thought it was a good way to make friends and join a social group and that.
Now that I have gotten into doing competitions, I have really gotten back into it. I am very shocked at how I have been performing to be fair, because I have not trained that much at all”.
It is a very busy time with for University athletes and sports. Although Brown has had experience with participating competiively, representing the University had been a new and enjoyable experience.
“It’s really cool and really different to representing a club. It is completly different because there is not as much pressure representing the University compared to a club. It is still a big deal.
“Especially with our University, there is not alot of Swimmers. There really is only four of us that competed at the BUCS this weekend. It did feel like a bit a pressure with only four people. We needed to makre sure we did our best with our names representing the University”.
The freestyler and flyer went on to describe her first time competing in the BUCS with the University.
“Oh my gosh! It was amazing.” said Brown.
“In all honesty, it’s so weird because I too Ella [soon to be team captain] that I could not do this. ‘I am so scared, I haven’t trained. I haven’t done this and that’ she just gave me a good pep talk and kind of forced me into it”.
She explained, “Going into that mindset of just having fun and thinking youâve done a million competition made me think it was not going to be as intense as it was. But when I got there obviously that really changed everything, being there sitting on the pool side seat, your brain goes back into that competition mind-set and think youâre here for one thing and one thing only.
Itâs really difficult swimming because you want to beat other people that youâre racing against, but you also want to beat yourself and the main thing that I always try to focus on is not thinking about anyone else but only myselfâ.
It is not the first time that Brown has competed in a compeitive environment with the sport.
The 18-year old revealed, “I have been swimming ever since I was a baby. I had only started swimming competitively at just 8-years-old.
“Swimming has taken up so much of my life. I used to train at least six times a week. It was so intense.”
She added, “I think swimming will always be so close to my heart. I feel like it is the only sport that I have been properly good at.
“I had the option to choose either gymnastics or swimming, and I ended up going with swimming and it was the best decision and thing I have done”.
The life-long swimmer ended with “I do not know if I will always be as competitive as I have been with it as I am now, but I will always love and appreciate it” as she reflected upon her future with swimming.
