This teenage girl, Carmen Le Roux, has literally and figuratively been through deep deep waters at the Open Water Olympic Trials 2016. Yet she comes out more determined, more resilient and mentally stronger than ever before. This is the victorious mindset of a true and honourable athlete – Carmen I salute you, and cannot wait to see what God has in store for your sporting and life journey ahead.
| Meet / Championships Report Back | |
| Name& Surname | Carmen Le Roux |
| Name of Meet | FINA Open Water Olympic Trials Marathon |
| Date of Meet | 11 June 2016 |
| City and Country | Setubal, Portugal |
| Names of various Events participated in? | Junior Open Water World Champs in Hungary
Open Water World Champs in Kazan Russia Junior World Champs Swimming pool in Singapore Open Water Olympic Trials in Portugal |
| Highlights of the event? | The highlight of the event was to see my training partner Chad Ho qualify for Olympics. It was such an exciting race to watch! |
| Lessons learned from the event? | Wow, I have learnt so many lessons from this trip! Race strategy and planning is probably one of the most important things in open water. I encourage everyone to get more race experience as this is one of the things that teaches you how to swim in all kinds of conditions and also to learn all the strategies. |
| General observations and vibe of the meet / country? | The venue where it was held was beautiful , we swam in the ocean, it was a bit cold, but otherwise the conditions were quite good!
It was amazing meeting the swimmers from the different countries! During this trip I have also realized how grateful we must be for the beautiful country we live in and what we have. |
| What/ who / motivated you throughout the meet / champs? | I have so many people to thank, because they are the ones that have motivated me and kept me positive throughout this meet. I couldn’t say thank you enough to each and everyone who has supported me throughout the meet and thank you also to Heslop Sports for all your motivating messages they really meant so much to me.
I would like to give credit to my mental coach, Jannie Putter, who got me ready going into this meet and kept me motivated. Lastly, I would just like to say thank you to my family for their motivation without them I wouldn’t be where I am today, especially my dad for travelling with me and being there for me! |
| Biggest challenge leading up to the meet? (if any) | There wasn’t really challenges leading up to the meet, I suppose it was just to keep training hard no matter how sore and tired my body was. |
| Biggest challenge during the meet? | My biggest challenge during the meet was getting my head back into the right place after my swim didn’t go as well as I was hoping for, but that wasn’t a big challenge either because I know God is by my side and everything happens for a reason. HE is in control! |
| What is happening next for you in sport? | My next big competition coming up is Junior open water world Champs in Netherlands this July where I will be doing 10km again, I am really looking forward to this!! |
| Anything Else you want to mention? | “ Success is a journey, not a destination. “ |
