Tomas Christman '27 Recruiting Profile

Excellence is not selectively exhibited, it's a lifestyle, and I've made it my duty to uphold it. 
In my Sophomore year, I moved to Florida and enrolled in the Bolles swim program. It was a sharp contrast to my previous years at Potomac Valley, and things got tough fast. I survived for two reasons. 

The first being reminding myself why I enrolled in the first place, I want to get my butt kicked in practice so I can dominate the competition at meets. The second you stop moving is the moment you start dying, and I made absolutely sure I wasn't going to die. 
The second reason was the community. Swimming is an individual sport, but I've come to learn more and more the value community can add when things inevitably get rocky. The team is not there to fall back on, but to bounce off of. This is reflected by a tradition carried by the original Olympians in Ancient Greece, the true winners when competing are the competitors, because whether you won or lost, you inched forward.

This tenacity extends outside of the pool too. As of 2025, I am enrolled in five AP's, with a GPA of 4.05, but that's not why I do it. To me, excellence is adaptation, but also the courage to want to take part in this planet, to deny yourself of this is to deny yourself of life. Excellence is the courage to be curious why things are the way they are, to learn and help others learn along the way in our allotted scope time; to try and inch the world a little bit forward too.