Zeynep Kivanc breaks Illinois State records

2015 May 8

Zeynep, a member of the USA Swimming national team, and a sophomore at LFA, competed in the Turkish Nationals in December of 2014. Zeynep set the following records for the 15-16 age group: 1:04.46 for the 100 backstroke, 2:16.45 for the 200 backstroke, and 2:20.89 for the 200 individual medley race. Zeynep's achievements now make her the new Illinois State Record holder for all three races.

Zeynep wakes up at 5 AM every day to practice with an additional training period after school. She practices 4 hours a day, which she says is critical to how well she does in competitive events. She says, "There's a lot of effort and time that goes into it. Sometimes you want to give up, but when I get that feeling, I remind myself that I have a goal to reach. Once you're out on the blocks, you have to be mentally focused and remember that you trained hard. Your results depend on how hard you trained. You can't fool yourself. I put out my best effort and got those results."

Zeynep practices at Lake Forest College with her swim club members, girls who Zeynep refers to as "great teammates" and important to her support system. "It's interesting because we race against each other, but we're still a team. We go out there and try to perform our best and then congratulate our teammates afterwards."

Besides swimming, Zeynep is passionate about writing, and picks history and English as her two favorite subjects. She loves to meet with her teachers and enjoys getting to know her classmates. Diversity is what brought her to LFA and she states that she is becoming familiar with other cultures all the time. For example, she watches anime with her roommate who can understand Japanese. "I get to learn something all the time. My friend group is so diverse and we mix together well, whether we're day or boarding students."

Over the summer, Zeynep will compete in the Turkish Nationals again and hopes to earn times that will qualify her to swim in the 2016 Olympics. "I would love to compete with the top swimmers in the world. It'll take a lot of effort but I'm willing to work for it. I want to swim in college too so right now I'm looking for programs that will let me do that. My first pick right now is Northwestern University."