Chelsea Ortega '27 Recruiting Profile

I started swimming when I was about 10 years old. Frankly, before then, I didn’t even know competitive swimming was a sport! I was a die-hard soccer player through and through. But the minute I stepped foot in a real pool for the first time, I knew I wanted to do something with that sport. Since then, I’ve worked to get better, I’m often told that I’m one of the hardest working people on deck. The work that I put in is not just to get better, but because of how much I love the sport. Of course it has its ups and downs, especially after a tough meet, but nothing compares to the high you get when you win a race or PR. The culmination of all of your hard work and early mornings is what drives me to keep pushing myself in an out of the pool. Going D1 for swimming has been and continues to be my dream to this day, but even if that doesn’t work out, I know I’ll find a way to keep swimming, because it’s something I want to carry with me for the rest of my life.