Here at MySwimPro we’re dedicated to helping swimmers all over the world improve their performance and health. 

No matter your age or skill level, your swimming journey had to start somewhere. We asked our team to share a short story about how they learned to swim!


Ready to dive in?

Carol Caldas, Video Editor

Carol learned to swim when she was 3 or 4 years old as part of her kindergarten class. She loved learning to swim with all of her friends, and enjoyed escaping Rio de Janeiro’s heat in the cool water! At the end of the program, she got to show her parents what she had learned.

Cenk Arioz, Backend Developer

Cenk learned to swim in the ocean when he was 7 or 8 years old. He went to the beach with his parents. At first, he wore arm floaties, but as he got more comfortable, he took them off. He could only swim a meter or two at the beginning of the vacation, but by the end he had worked up to 20 meters! 

Lorenza Padilla, Digital Content Producer

Lorenza learned to swim when she was 4 or 5 years old. She took swim lessons for a few years, until her mom noticed that Lorenza and her sister were trying to swim freestyle. From that point, Lorenza took stroke technique lessons. When she was about 8 years old, she didn’t like swimming with all of the older boys on her team, and ended up stopping. 

She rediscovered her love for the water while she was at university, and hasn’t stopped swimming since!

Max Bilan, Senior iOS Developer

At 8 years old, Max’s parents enrolled him and his brother in a swimming group. He has fond memories of going to the pool after school each day and seeing his friends.

Max found an old race ribbon from one of his first 50-meter freestyle races — he went a 1:13! This race was his first major swimming milestone.

Paige Walters, VP of Marketing

Paige is a self-proclaimed water baby. Her parents taught her how to swim in their backyard pool. Paige’s mom swam competitively growing up, and was a great teacher.

Paige broke her arm twice when she was young, and she vividly remembers how frustrated she was that she couldn’t swim with her cast on. She had to put a trash bag over it to keep it dry!

Taylor Holmes, Global Marketing Manager

Growing up in sunny Arizona, Taylor had a pool in her backyard. She first learned to swim at a very young age with the help of her parents, both of whom were competitive swimmers growing up. She and her brother would swim for hours every day during the summers. Taylor’s family also had a boat, and she spent countless weekends out on the lakes in the area, learning to water ski and wakeboard.

Adam Oxner, CTO & Co-Founder

Adam has been swimming his whole life — he guesses that his parents put him in the water when he was a baby. Before joining his local swim team during middle school, Adam took a few lessons to make sure he had mastered the basics of stroke technique.

Adam comes from a family of collegiate swimmers. Adam swam for the University of Michigan, and both of his parents and his grandfather swam in college, too.

Ben Hendricks, iOS Developer

Ben was born in France, and learned to swim in the beach town of Saint Malo. The instructor Ben’s mom had in mind had a strict rule — his swimmers had to be at least 6 years old. Ben was 5, and was tall for his age, so his mom lied and told the instructor he was 6!

Ben went on to play water polo at the University of California Los Angeles.

Michael Allon, Android Developer & Co-Founder

Mike learned to swim at age 4 in his family’s backyard pool in upstate New York. He and his brother always had fun going down water slides and playing Marco Polo. 

He didn’t begin to take swimming seriously until he met MySwimPro Co-Founders Fares and Adam. With their help, Mike was able to compete in his first U.S. Masters Nationals 2 years ago!

Charlie Brown, Community Champion

When Charlie was 5 years old, he went on a boating trip with his brothers. All of his brothers were swimming and enjoying the water, and Charlie was jealous that he wasn’t able to join them. Being the brave 5-year-old that he was, Charlie slipped out of his life jacket and jumped into the water, where he promptly sank and had to be rescued. After that, his parents enrolled him in swimming lessons.

Charlie discovered that he excelled at swimming, and swam for his local swim team throughout his school years.

Dan Plantamaura, Business Development

Dan had open heart surgery when he was 5, and his cardiologist suggested that he swim or run to strengthen his heart. His dad was a runner, so he’s not sure what drew him to swimming, but he kept up with the sport through high school.

These days, he doesn’t swim as much as he used to, but is involved in numerous swimming businesses.

Fares Ksebati, CEO & Co-Founder

Fares learned to swim at age 4 or 5. He wasn’t very good at first, and was pretty nervous to float on his back. Over the years, he built his confidence, joined a swim team and he hasn’t stopped swimming since!

Remember: Anyone can swim! No matter where you learn or how old you are, swimming is for everyone. Share your swimming story below! For more swimming stories, subscribe to our Community YouTube channel!

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