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Parry McCluer High School junior swimmer Olive King earned medals in both of her races at the Class 1 and 2 state swim meet on Thursday at the SwimRVA Collegiate School Aquatics Center in Richmond. King placed third in the 500yard freestyle and fourth in the 50-yard freestyle.
In the 500-yard freestyle, which King just started competing in this season, she finished in 5:36.1, tying her personal record. Bruton’s Maddie Hubbard won the race in 5:17.49. Over the course of the season, King has dropped nearly 24 seconds in the event. Swimmers earned medals by placing in the top six.
King swam her second-fastest time in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing in 25.69 seconds. Radford’s Shelby Jones won the race in 25.39 seconds.
As the Fighting Blues’ lone swimmer, King scored 31 points to put PM in 17th place of 31 girls’ teams. Bruton won the meet with 395.5 points, Radford placed second with 299 points, and Nanduah (200) finished third. Rounding out the top five were Strasburg (170.5) and George Wythe (158).
King was the Region 1C and 2C champion in both the 50-yard and 500-yard freestyle races, her second and third titles. Although she swam just two events at the state meet, she qualified for five events.
King said competing in the state meet “was fun, but also extremely tiring. It was a great learning experience for what I can do better.”
On adapting to the 500-yard freestyle, King said, “I immediately fell in love with the 500 after qualifying by time for states in it after my first time doing it midway through the season. Before then, I almost only ever swam the 50 and 100-yard freestyle and focused on sprinting. It was very interesting having to learn how to pace myself and swim longer events.”
At last year’s state meet, King placed seventh in the 100-yard freestyle and eighth in the 50yard freestyle. She practices with the Rockbridge County High School swimmers, all coached by Erica Bisaillon.
King said Bisaillon “has helped me grow so much this season, and she does a lot for me.” She added that the RC swimmers “help push me to become faster, and they are fun to be around, making practice enjoyable.”
Bisaillon said this year’s state meet was “a stellar end to Olive’s junior season.”
Impressed that King was able to take on the 500-yard freestyle and improve so much, Bisaillon said, “The 500 is a hard race, and if not approached with a clear strategy is extremely taxing on the swimmer. Ideally, a swimmer is holding a consistent pace throughout, with a slightly faster start, consistent middle, and finishing strong with a faster pace at the end. When Olive set her personal record at the region meet, she went out extremely fast and wasn’t able to hold a consistent pace throughout, resulting in fatigue and a swim that just didn’t feel great as per her words. However, her swim at the state meet was the opposite.”
“By slowing down slightly at the start, Olive was able to hold her pace and pick up speed for a strong finish at the end, while still swimming her best time,” added Bisaillon. “No matter how physically prepared a swimmer is, if they don’t understand the race strategy for their events they won’t swim as well as they can. Olive’s growing understanding of race mechanics is setting her up for future success.”
In the spring, King will play tennis for PM, but she’ll continue training with her swimming. She is to hold off competing in swimming races until tennis season is over.
Looking ahead to the future, King said her goals are “kind of all over the place. But I would for sure love to make regions and states again. Swimming in college has been something I’ve considered. We’ll see what the future holds.”
