Adrian Ruffner '21 Recruiting Profile

Aligning myself on the starting position, I looked up and saw the water, I looked around and saw all the people who helped me get to that position, my coaches, parents, teammates, and especially the competition. I hear the whistle from main official telling the announcer to speak. Hearing him calling out for silence and saying the 3 words that pump my heart. Ready, on your marks, GO.

When I was younger, I didn’t always want to be swimmer. I tried out various sports, like basketball, soccer, volleyball, but none of these sports really got my attention and my need to release energy. Not until I finally found a very unusual sport that I didn’t really notice, swimming. When I started swimming, I didn’t really like it, but my mom told me to give it a chance. I took my lessons and suddenly found out that there were competitions, and though I wasn’t ready at the time, I was a little intrigued by it. So, I started to improve my strokes and asking my coaches and my parents how I can get better.

They advised me to change my schedules to better use my spare time or the time I had left in my day, for swimming. So, every day, you would find me in a swimming pool for at least 2 hours, and when I was finally ready to compete, I got a whole new feeling of adrenaline which got me to want to practice more. My first competition opened my sense of wanting to win, but also cheer on my teammates and even other swimmers who I had no idea who they were. It didn’t matter to me if I won the medal, I’d try my best and continue practicing, but most importantly have fun. It wasn’t until I finally got into national and international competitions, that I finally felt that all my hard work, had been for something, and I had a feeling of contribution to my team I didn’t really get a lot.

All this that happened in my life, was because of all the people pushing me into the person I am today. I had a sense of incompletion, a whole life of emptiness, that was filled by this sport that I love so much. All because of a condition in my leg that made me start swimming, if it weren’t for that, I know I wouldn’t be the person I am today.