Pietro Ubertalli '22 Recruiting Profile

Pietro’s personal statement

I am a dual Nationality Italian and American student passionate about swimming since my whole life, and I consider the opportunity to go to college in the US as the way to fulfil my dream of swimming with some of the top athletes in the world, whilst maintaining a world class education.  I simply cannot wait for this.

Born in the US by Italian parents I had the opportunity to have a unique international upbringing having lived already in 5 countries since I was born, I moved across 4 schools and experienced different cultures and ways of living, from New York to London (United Kingdom), from Sofia (Bulgaria) to Milan and back to London everywhere I made new friends, adapted to a new schools and to a new way of living while learning several languages (French, English, Italian, Spanish).

Across all of this, as I moved countries and schools, one thing never changed: my passion and involvement in swimming.

I started my first swimming class when I was 4 years old (in Bulgaria) as a way to learn to swim and later to stay fit.  The swimming passion I have actually developed in Milan, when at the age of 6 I met my first real coach from one of the leading swimming squads in Milan (where Olympic-level swimmers like Luca Sacchi and Federica Pellegrini were trained and raised to this sport), that initiated me to competitive swimming.

As I moved to UK, I was determined not to let this go and was lucky enough to be able to swim with some of the best coaches in UK, two former Olympic athletes (Michael Jamieson and Craig Gibbons on top of my Fitness coach John Watson) who have not only helped me move to the next level in terms of technique and strength, but also thought me what it means to practice sport at competitive level, being part of a team and making sport being part of your life.  I learned the importance of hard work and commitment to achieve results.  I learned to lose and look forward to the next race, I learned to win and despite that to look for what can be done better.  They developed me into a swimmer without the stress and the pressure many kids of my age are under.  I just swim because I love the sport.  This hard work with no pressure environment has allowed me to beat 2 all time age group UK records in 100 and 200M back and later on to compete and win several national races.  I learned the excitement of competing for something much bigger than yourself, at 14 I was competing in Open international meets in UK and The Netherlands, nothing is impossible if you really want it. 

All of this I believe are skills I learned for life well beyond the world of sports.

As I now look forward to college, my dream is to continue cultivating my passion for swimming at international level whilst maintaining a strong academic curriculum at a top academic institution, ideally going back to US, the country where I was born.

In particular, being able to marry strong academics with top-level swimming is quite key for me as I think about my future.

On the academic side, whilst I have not yet decided my main field of study, I am deeply passionate about math science physics and related topics and hence I considering now a potential future study in Engineering or Business.

With regards to swimming, my goal for college is to compete representing one of the best US universities for this sport and ideally continue from this to then compete at international level as part of the US swimming team and win my “own Olympics” whatever my “own Olympics” will be.  Once think I am certain is that no matter how far I will make it I will give it all!

What I would bring to my future swimming team and athletes’ community is a positive can do attitude, a highly focused and determined mindset, a lot of self-discipline and eagerness to learn.  All characteristics that my coaches and teachers have always recognised in me since I was very young. 

At the same time, the time spent abroad, experiencing different cultures has given me a strong open-mind, adaptability and openness to diverse environments and different cultures which have always made me a very strong team player and has given me the ability to understand and bring together people coming from different backgrounds, mindsets and social upbringing.

To sum up, I believe I could strongly contribute to my future community of students and athletes in college by contributing to bringing the swimming Team to the next level, whilst maintaining a strong academic track record and being an active contributor to the team’s and community’s life.

Respectfully, 

Pietro