Kelsey Gouge, a Florida Southern College swimmer, works hard to improve as an athlete every day.
“This year has taught me a lot so I think I have gotten better as a swimmer,” Gouge said.
When she has difficulties to concentrate at the pool, which can happen very easily in the championship season according to Gouge, she tries to relax focusing on her goals.
“It hasn’t happened a lot to me. I concentrate as much as I can,” Gouge said.
To balance the studies and the sport she says, she is used to the routine. Gouge has been a swimmer since high school. The key for her is time management to be ahead of your schoolwork.
Gouge is sprint freestyler. She believes that she has been “good” this year. She trusts in her coach’s experience thanks to him she has gotten faster.
“Kelsey gives a lot of confidence, positive energy, leadership. She likes to work hard, she is one of the women who works the hardest,” Miguel Ferreira, a swimmer from FSC, said.
The most challenging part for her is the hours she spends in training.
“It is really tough but you have to be heart headed to keep yourself not going crazy. It can be a lot but it is such a good feeling to swim really fast at the end of the year, because you put so much on training and making it happen,” Gouge said.
According to Gouge the women’s swim team has grown considerably, she says that her coach emphasizes what truly means being a team.
At the beginning, for her it was a little hard to fit into the team. Being a freshmen and not knowing what to do made it difficult.
“Everyone on the team is so welcoming, they are all so nice,” Gouge said.
What makes her team different from others according to Gouge is that they are “unique”
“No one knows how hard we work. The only people that know are us. It’s like an individual sport but a team sport too, so is nice to have other people that they know what you are going through all the time,” Gouge said.
What help the team to consolidate together are the team activities that the coach assigns once every week.
“With swimming you don’t have a social life, so it will be nice not to do so much after I am done,” Gouge said.
Even though she is missing the social life she considers that it is worth it, because that aspect can wait. For her it is not a big rush to go party all the time. The swimmer finds other things to do, according to Gouge.
“She has definitely been a huge addition to the team,” Ferreira said.
Currently she is undecided, but she has in mind to join nursing or sports management.
In a future plan she would like to stop swimming when she graduates from FSC, because she wants to try other things.
