Local swimming star goes for glory
SWIMMING
Athletic, confident and fire in the belly best describes Botswana’s 17-year-old swimming protégé James Freeman. Upon meeting Freeman for the first time it is easy to tell that he has the necessary physical attributes required for the aquatic sports of swimming.
A tall stature and long limbs are the most striking features shared by most successful world class swimmers be it the USA’s Michael Phelps or Chad Le Clos of South Africa. At only 17 years old, Freeman commands an impressive resume having competed at the Youth Commonwealth games and the All Africa Youth Games. The local swimmer is expected to compete at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Speaking on the side lines of the Youth Olympic games sending off ceremony in Gaborone earlier this week, Freeman said he is currently training at the Pretoria high performance Centre where he has been busy preparing for the biggest competition of his career so far.
“This will be my first world competition. I have been to Commonwealth Youth games and All Africa Youth Games which was big but this is going to be on a different scale and I am excited to see what world events are like,” Freeman said in an interview with BG Sport.
“I will be competing in the 200, 400 and 800m free style at the Youth Olympics. During the All Africa Youth Games back in July I managed to get a gold medal and I broke the competition record in the 800m free style. Last year in the Commonwealth Youth Games it was tough but I managed to get a bronze medal in the 1500m as a 16-year-old. So far the aquatically talented teenage said qualifying for three events at the Youth Olympic Games has been one of his biggest achievements.
“This has been one of my goals since I started swimming. My goal so far is setting fast times but it is going to be tough as I will be competing with the whole world. The Americans, Asians and Europeans are all good. I cannot set goals on positions, it will depend on how it is going but I have times I want to achieve.”
Furthermore, Freeman said preparations for the international showpiece have been going well. “For the past few months I have been training very hard and intensely. As of now I will just have a few touch ups ahead of the competitions but I am prepared to take on the world. Eloquent and oozing confidence even in interviews, Freeman said he started swimming with his mother who acted as first swimming coach at Kgaswe Primary school in Palapye when he was eight years old.
“In standard five when I was 11 years old, I moved to Gaborone and I started training under the Darrel Morton School of swimming (DMSS). When I reached high school, I moved to South Africa and continued my training.” The youthful swimmer said he look up to multiple Olympic gold medallist swimmer Michael Phelps of the USA, the greatest swimmer ever. Freeman said what he admires most about perhaps the greatest Olympian in history is the fact that he never missed a single day of training in five years ahead of the 2008 Olympics.
“He(Phelps) proved that all you need is hard work and you can achieve anything.” My ultimate goal is to go to the Olympics and put Botswana on the map for swimming so that other countries take notice. Freeman will be joined by another swimmer Ruvarashe Gondo at the Youth Olympics.
With only two athletes this will be the smallest team Botswana has ever sent to the Olympics compared to eight athletes who attended the games in Nanjing China in 2014. The 2014 Youth Olympics saw the likes of Baboloki Thebe and Karabo Sibanda clinching silver medals in athletics.
