Swimming with the Taipei Tigersharks

From November 3rd to November 6th, our swim team travelled to Taipei to take part in a swim invitational. The meet was hosted by the Taipei American School, as they have a pool on their campus. A total of fifteen teams participate from all over Asia, which is more teams than at APAC.

Due to complications with the SAT date and visa issues, the majority of the swim team was not able to travel to Taipei. Only three people were able to go: Junior Alice Fiorito and Sophomores Gino Zhang and Jim Lin.

Their first day in Taipei consisted of touring the city. As the team had an extra day before the meet officially began, members were able to experience the busy city of Taipei. They visited famous landmarks such as the Taipei 101 and enjoyed a nice meal at the night market.

On the following days, the swam their respective races. Unfortunately, they were not able to participate in any relay races as there were not enough swimmers. Alice Fiorito raced the 100m IM, 100m Freestyle, 50m Freestyle, and the 200m IM. Jim Lin participated in the 100m IM, 100m Freestyle, 50m Freestyle, and the 100m Breaststroke. Finally, Gino Zhang took part in the 100m Freestyle, 50m Freestyle, and the 100m Breaststroke. Although AISG did not win any medals, Junior Alice Fiorito had a positive outlook on the outcome of the meet: “I enjoyed going around Taipei the day before our meet so we could relax a bit before working hard. I definitely learnt a lot from this gala, especially what we should work on during practices.”

With the swim team growing in size and skill, events like these can only result in improvement. At this point in the season, winning medals is not very important, as the real competition is  APAC.