From Aug. 21-24 in Canberra, Australia, junior Kelsey Zhang joined other talented swimmers under-18 from all around the Pan Pacific to compete at the 2024 Junior Pan Pacific Championships. Zhang represented Team USA in the 200-meter butterfly, 400-meter individual medley, 100-meter freestyle and 50-meter freestyle, placing most notably in the 200-meter butterfly.
To participate in this competition, Zhang underwent a rigorous selection process: She first represented her club team, Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics, at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials held in Indiana from June 15-23. To be eligible to compete at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships, she needed to place within top two of her event among 18 and under swimmers. She placed 19th overall at the meet against competitors of all ages and successfully qualified for Junior Pan Pacs.
In the preliminary round of the Junior Pan Pacs, Zhang swam a 2:11.06 in the 200-meter butterfly — only two seconds slower than her personal best — and won fifth overall out of 22 swimmers. Within Team USA, she placed second and qualified for the 2024 Junior Pan Pacs Championship Finals, which takes the top two swimmers from each country for each event.
In the final round of Junior Pan Pacs, Zhang swam an impressive time of 2:10.8 for the same event, despite being sick. She again placed second among the U.S. swimmers and fifth overall.
“It was just an honor to represent Team USA,” Zhang said. “So making finals was pretty big for me.”
At Junior Pan Pacs, Zhang interacted with teams and athletes from the other countries such as Canada, Australia, and Japan, trading gear and spending time together on the last day of the competition.
Although it was highly competitive, the atmosphere at the meet and in Team USA was welcoming and supportive. Zhang enjoyed the new friendships she made at the championships, including ones that stretched beyond her team.
“[It was] one big family. Everyone was supporting each other and cheering for each other,” Zhang said. “When USA got first, they would play the national anthem, and we’d all just start singing it while it played.”
The team community was not only close-knit, but also had a strong work ethic and drive. This year, Team USA finished with 44 medals, 11 Junior Pan Pacific Championship records and one National Age Group record.
“This experience was eye-opening, to see all the top athletes train and hang out together,” Zhang said. “It was a great environment to learn a lot. Seeing everyone putting in their work, I was like: ‘Oh, I want to do that too. I want to train hard just like all these other people are.’ They motivated me a lot.”
Team USA consisted of 38 athletes — 20 boys and 18 girls — and around 20 staff members, including coaches for every event, assistant coaches, a nutritionist, a doctor and a psychiatrist.
As part of her grueling training regime, Zhang said she swims a total of 25 and a half hours per week. After her morning practices three times a week from 6-7:30 a.m., she goes home, showers, eats breakfast and then goes to school. Then after school, Zhang attends afternoon practices from 4:45-7:45 p.m.
Unsurprisingly, a major challenge Zhang faces is balancing swimming and schoolwork; missing the first two weeks of junior year for the championships, she has already noted that catching up has been a struggle. However, with proper time management and a few schedule changes, Zhang hopes she can get through this school year without too much trouble.
As one of the stars of the girls’ school swim team, Zhang won the 2023 state CIF race as a freshman in the 100-meter butterfly, swimming a time of 52.94 seconds and beating 17 qualifying competitors. Zhang also competed in CCS as a freshman, placing first in the 100-yard butterfly at 52.62 seconds and first in the women’s 200-yard Individual Medley at 1:59.03.
During her sophomore year, she once again took first place in the women’s 100-yard butterfly with an improved time of 52.14, just barely behind the all-time CCS record of 51.92 set in 2011. While she did qualify for states in the 100-yard butterfly, she ultimately chose to opt out to focus on training for the U.S. Olympic trials.
In following years, she hopes to compete in the Junior World Championships, where she will be able to swim with athletes from all across the globe, and not just the Pan-Pacific. Zhang has also recently started the college recruitment process and plans to travel to universities for official visits within the month.
Through practices, meets and the Junior Olympics, her family has been a major motivator for her to perform well. Her father attends all her swim meets and is what she calls her “biggest supporter.” Zhang also finds that her teammates at PASA have pushed her to become a stronger athlete.
“I believe that swimming can also be a team sport because I didn’t do this alone,” Zhang said. “If I didn’t have my team cheering for me and helping me train, I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am and I definitely could not have had the opportunity to be on Team USA.”
During practices, Zhang and her teammates always make sure to express words of encouragement to each other like: “Oh, it’s one more. You got this” and “last one, fast one.”
Zhang hopes to continue her swimming career for as long as possible, and plans to pursue a career related to sports in the future.
“So many people have helped me with my career path, so I want to give back and help other people as well.”
Above all, Zhang emphasizes the importance of loving the sport in order to succeed in it.
“I feel like you improve the most when you’re having fun and enjoying the sport,” she said. “You don’t want to go into practice being like, ‘Oh, I really don’t want to swim.’ Because at the end of the day, you become who you want to become and you can’t force yourself to be someone you don’t want to be.”
