I have always been passionate about swimming, but the difficulties in my youth didn’t help much. I learned to swim during adolescence when I managed to enroll at Sport Algés e Dafundo, buy a swimsuit and a swim cap—there were no flip-flops
After a few years, I had the privilege of having Shintaro Yokochi as my coach and I swam in the lane next to Alexandre Yokochi, a finalist in the 200m breaststroke at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. At the time, none of this mattered to me, and when Coach Yokochi Sr. started demanding speed from me (which I didn’t have!), after a few scares from diving and sharp taps on my backside (yes, back then it wasn’t unusual to get a good tap if you fell behind!), it stopped being fun and competition was not for me
Over the following years, I kept doing some sports, outings and walks, climbing; I also practiced martial arts, where I met my husband, and later, the two of us stuck to the gym
2020 – covid, and now what?
At home, motivation gradually faded, and when the gyms reopened, we didn’t want to go back inside four walls.
On a beautiful and blessed Saturday morning, we happened to watch a TV report about the first open water swimming school, which, due to COVID, had “reinvented” sea swimming by promoting and supporting groups who wanted to swim in the sea…
Honey! This is what we're going to do... we're going to start swimming in the sea!
The laughter beside me was so loud that the entire neighboring block must have heard it…
— You?! Swim in the sea? — he said disdainfully — We don’t even go to the beach because the sun is too hot, the water is freezing, the sand pricks, you don’t even get your feet wet… you’re delirious!
He said everything I needed to hear to challenge myself. I called, asked questions, and decided! We took the necessary test to be able to start, and we began. At first, with many difficulties—the fear, the cold, the unknown—but I never showed weakness, and three weeks later we did our first race, the half mile in Ericeira. I confess that when I arrived and saw the buoys in the distance, all I could think about was how I would get there, but I made it and finished, in last place.
From 2021 until today, we have never stopped; the sea is our gym, and every week, whether summer or winter, we go there at least once a week . As we continued, we realized that returning to the pool made perfect sense to learn technique in a controlled environment and to understand some details for improvement that often us. Learning is a constant, and besides, once a week no longer seemed enough.
In one of our sea sessions, we had as coach our dear Bibiana Farias, who stayed in our minds (because of her teachings) and in our hearts (because of her patience and kindness).
Thanks to social media, we never lost sight of her, and as soon as we learned about the SWIM4FUN club, we couldn’t miss the chance to be part of it, and as expected , we were extremely well welcomed.
When we swim, always accompanied by our groups of friends , fully committed in body and soul, with full hearts, whether in the sea or in the pool, in races or on outings.
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Anabela Fernandes