Aina Sjoblom '26 Recruiting Profile

Aloha! I'm from Hawaii and live on the island of Oahu. My name is Athea Aina Sjoblom (on Swimcloud I'm Aina Sjoblom), I'm 16 years old, and a sophomore at Punahou School. Some things I enjoy doing in my free time are hanging out with friends, hiking, rock climbing, going to the beach, surfing, volunteering for community events, and doing homework or studying at cafes. Some activities I am involved in for fun are swimming (of course), harp, hula and I have just started water polo. Pursuing these interests helps me destress and stay motivated. 

My swim journey started when I was less than a year old at Leahi Swim School. I continued swimming at Leahi throughout preschool and also explored other sports up until 4th grade. Around this time I switched to swim lessons at the University of Hawaii and participated in their summer camps. I attended Punahou School since kindergarten and after finally making the choice to pursue swimming, I joined the Punahou Aquatics (PAQ) swim club. In becoming more focused and committed to swimming, over the years, I started to get faster times and attend higher level meets. 

My ultimate goal for college swimming is to become an Olympic-level athlete. To achieve this goal I have started doing more activities outside of my club swimming such as our state ILH (Interscholastic League of Hawaii) swim team, which has three groups, intermediate (White), junior varsity (Blue), and varsity (Buff)--I have been on Buff for the past two years. I am working with a personal trainer and nutrition coach with the aim of making more junior national cuts. Competing at higher level events is helping me learn about the competition and how to maintain peak performance during extended events. My strongest events now are 100 fly and 100 back and I am working towards a time of 54.00 in both.

I enjoy working with my coaches to set goals and continuously grow as a swimmer and as a person. One of the key themes at PAQ is being ready to succeed in the next steps of college and in the workplace, while acknowledging all we receive from our community and looking for ways to give back. My family and I have always valued giving back to the community and recently I was able to give back to my school community by working as a high school counselor for 2nd and 4th graders. 

I believe that the skills we work on in PAQ, like perseverance, respect for self and others, and inviting constructive criticism, will help me in every aspect of life. Though I have a busy schedule I keep my grades up by communicating with my teachers, spending time at the library, and signing up for study hall times to get my work done. Keeping a high level of awareness of how my teammates are feeling helps me see when I can offer encouragement or do something to help them. We cheer each other on and help each other with the feedback we receive. I reflect on the pointers that I receive and keep those things in mind when training. I am looking forward to swimming at the college level and joining a college team that I can contribute to and grow with.