“I just swam. I didn’t know I was racing. I didn’t even know if I was doing things correctly. I just liked being in the water. And that’s how it is now. That’s what keeps me going every day.” — Sara Sun, on how she started swimming
When Sara Sun isn’t swimming, she’s studying, and when she isn’t studying, she’s swimming. It’s par for the course for a young adult who’s plunged headfirst into a balancing act of brawn and brains.
Sun, 19, is a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley, where between classes she’s making a splash as a member of the Golden Bears women’s swim team.
With a first collegiate swim season under wraps and a debut academic year nearly behind her, Sun can breathe a sigh of relief — albeit a very brief one. The four-time high school all-American is now training for the 2008 Beijing Olympics swimming trials, slated for late June in Omaha.
“It’s crazy that I’m one of those who are actually going to go,” says Sun on a cloudless morning on the Cal campus. “This is my very first trials and the highest level in the swimming world that I’ve accomplished so far. It’ll be a great experience for me to just go in and see how these elite athletes compete at this level, and just to acknowledge myself as one of them.”
Sun boasts the youthful vigor and lean physicality typical of a swimmer. Her 5-foot-6 frame sports a Cal-blue polo and slim jeans, a hefty backpack her sole functional accessory. She exudes a warm, sunny disposition, the kind that makes you want to be her friend, want to witness her excel, want to cheer her on from the sidelines. She graciously responds to each question, her poise reminiscent of a pro athlete catching her breath while simultaneously tackling post-victory questions from an ESPN commentator.
During the Olympic trials training season, a day in the life of Sara Sun goes something like this: morning practice from 5:45 to 7:45, classes ’til noon, practice from noon to 3:30, another class. “And then it’s on me to study and go to sleep early so I can do it all over again the next day,” she adds.
Such a schedule might send anyone off the deep end, but not Sun, who says she’d sink if her lifestyle lacked structure. Earning good marks in and out of the water is her double-edged modus operandi.
Her education weighs as heavily on her mind as swimming although she has yet to declare a major. “Now that I’m here, I realize how difficult it is to balance both,” she confesses. “Coming in, I wanted to be a doctor, major in molecular cell bio. I’m not sure what I want to do yet, so right now I’m focusing on doing as best as I can in my breadth requirements.”
Born in Los Angeles and reared in nearby La Crescenta, Calif.,Sun is the youngest of two children. Her dad owns a grocery store, her mom is a housewife, and her brother, who’s 21, is studying in Korea. Her parents, she says, are “not really into” her swimming career, but are supportive.
