Swimming
LOCAL swimming star Faye Rogers attended the annual meeting of the Teesdale Tiger Sharks on September 28.
More than 40 parents and swimmers attended to hear the swimmer from Richmond deliver an inspirational talk at the Teesdale Leisure Centre.
The evening started with a well attended race-night with four teams of all level swimmers from the club competing frantically and noisily.
It was a chance for recently joined members to experience the excitement of competitive swimming. Less than a year ago they were learning the strokes, now they were giving it all, whilst their friends shouted their names in encouragement.
Further encouragement came whilst listening to World Para-swimming gold-medallist Faye Rogers’ story.
The swimming-bug struck early, because by age nine she was already competing in the pool and at 15 was swimming at a national level.
Swimming at the Olympic Trials in 2021 shows how far Faye had got, then she suffered a serious arm injury from a car accident. It could have stopped her swimming career and blighted all that promise. However, full of resolve and by now a student at Aberdeen University, Faye transitioned to S10-class Para-Swimming.
By July 2023, she had amassed several national and European medals before winning a gold medal for 100m butterfly at the World Championships (a European record) as well as two further bronze medals (400m freestyle and 200m individual medley). The young Tiger Sharks were in awe and listened attentively to the invaluable advice she gave about how to become a high performing athlete.
Head coach Keith Hall gave an overview of the past year’s swimming achievements and announced Thea Onions as club captain. Swimmer of the month was Finlay Street-Poulson for his total commitment to the sport.
