For the love of swimming

St. Pauls College
Helen Forster

Ronan Wantenaar, now 16, began swimming competitively when he was ten years old.

He trains at the Namib Swimming Academy (NSA) for 16 – 20 hours per week, before and after school. During his training sessions, he focuses on improving both his technique and endurance. He also does body weight training to develop his mstrength.

Ronan has participated in international championships in South Africa, Mauritius, Angola and Zimbabwe.

So far, Ronan believes that his greatest achievement was winning gold for the male U/20 200m backstroke, in Luanda, Angola, in December last year.

Ronan started swimming, at the age of 5, because of his love for being in water. He said that, “As a child, I used to just run towards water and immediately swim in it.”

Through the years, it has become increasingly challenging for him to balance his school work and swimming. Nevertheless, he would never consider giving up the sport. He said, “If I were to stop swimming now, I would miss incredible opportunities of meeting people and travelling to new places.”

Although he is extremely passionate about his sport, Ronan does occasionally become frustrated with the amount of work that is required of him.

He stated that, "Some days, when training would not go well or I felt ­unmotivated, I would wonder what I was doing with my life. Why was I here? But, then I realized that I train for a reason; to exceed all expectations and to become better than I already am.

When you are as young as I am, there is still a lot of room for improvement." Ronan’s role models are Chad Le Clos and Michael Phelps.

Like them, he plans to compete at the Olympics and achieve a podium position. He aims to represent Namibia in either the 2020 or 2024 Olympics.