Young Auckland swimmer well on her way to 2020 Olympics

April 13, 2016

Young Auckland swimmer well on her way to 2020 Olympics

Paige Schendelaar-Kemp at swimming training at Pakuranga College. Photo: Lydia Lewis

An Auckland swimming student with her heart set on competing in the 2020 Olympics is buoyed by the support of her swimming family.

Pakuranga College student Paige Schendelaar-Kemp, 17, has set her sights on a swimming scholarship for top tier universities in the United States.

Paige says her family, who are nearly all swimmers, have sacrificed a lot to get her to the top.

Dad Sheldon Kemp even quit his job as a businessman to work as a swimming coach.

Schendelaar-Kemp has a wider support network of friends and the public, and an online sportsperson Facebook page which had 742 likes at the time publication.

Jana Wilkitzki has coached Schendelaar-Kemp for eight years and believes moving to the United States would be a natural progression in her career and life.

Wilkitzki said studying and training in the United States was a risk for all young swimmers as athletes were looking for the right programme to aid their personal success.

“The US would be about learning and getting life skills as well.”

Schendelaar-Kemp credits her parents who have supported her swimming career from the get go. Her parents drop her off at training at 6am and pick her up again at 8pm.

“My parents and my coach Jana have been helping me prepare for the Olympics the most.”

Wilkitzki said the Olympics could be a realistic goal as the young swimmer is old enough and her performance is nearly at the required level.

Mr Kemp believes that what sets his daughter apart from other swimmers is her attention to the finer details around her skill.

“She has always been pedantic maintaining a high level of skill over power.”

Wilkitzki said some of Schendelaar-Kemp’s success is a result of her maturity that she has upheld from a young age.

“She is a highly motivated person. Not a person who would follow, she has her own pathways and goals.”

At a recent event, commentators said that Schendelaar-Kemp held her team together by taking the relay gap from roughly six body lengths to less than a body length putting her team in the lead after her lap.

“Look at that difference 0.04 [seconds], now that was the difference that [Schendelaar-]Kemp put the Howick-Pakuranga club in front at the end of the butterfly, now that has reversed that and Auckland wins.”

Watch a video of Paige Schendelaar-Kemp competing at the event below.

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