Lianna Swan was just seven-years-old when she first climbed aboard a winner’s podium following her success at a school swimming competition. And on Friday she hoping to recreate this moment again – but this time at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Lianna Swan, 19, is currently representing Pakistan at the Rio Olympics 2016 as a wild card entrant.
“To get into the Olympics, you really have to put in the work and hours,” said Lianna Swan.
“It’s not necessarily why I am doing this to get to the Olympics myself. I am also doing this for the girls in Pakistan because if they see me doing it and if they’ve seen me swim, they see me train and they seen me being able to go to the Olympics they know that there’s no reason why they can’t make it to the Olympics as well.”
Lianna specialises in breaststroke and freestyle and currently holds seven national records in swimming. Lianna has been representing Pakistan internationally since 2010.
She will be competing with seven other swimmers in her heat, with a total of 92 swimmers in the category vying to earn a berth in the semi-finals.
Travelling from their home in Dubai to the bustling host country of Brazil, her mother, father and brother will be cheering Lianna on from the sidelines.
Lianna is no stranger to tough competition, nor is she a stranger to success.
Before her entry into the Olympics, she competed in many heavyweight competitions including the Commonwealth Games in Scotland in 2014.
Participating in five events at the Commonwealth’s, she broke four Pakistan national records.
“She has proved herself to be Pakistan’s best female swimmer,” Nadia said. And what’s even more impressive is the fact that she currently holds 11 national records, seven individual records and three relay records.
She has competed in the Asian Games, the Fina World Cup (Dubai 2011), Fina World Aquatics Championships (Barcelona 2013) and the FINA World Championships August 2015, held in Kazan- Russia.
Most recently, she won the Gold Medal at the South Asian Games held in India in February 2016.