Lauren Gieseking

Parkway West boys swimming will be participating in the Missouri High School State Swim & Dive Meet on Saturday, Nov. 16.  We chose senior Tommy Christensen for a quick interview on his swimming career.

Christensen, one of the captains of the team, has been swimming professionally for 12 years.  When he was young, he was afraid of the water, but his parents made sure they were around him when he went in so he could get over his fear.

Christensen is one of the captains of the swim team at West.  They started practice in August and participate until the State Meet in November.  He practices 20 hours a week, with two practices in the morning before school.

“When you are a swimmer you give up a lot of your free time.  It takes both mental and physical work to focus on swimming.  When you add in classwork, there isn’t much time left,” Christensen said.

Despite his busy schedule, Christensen still manages over a 4.0 GPA, and he is a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist.

“The team comes first.  Without the team there for me, my personal success doesn’t mean much,” Christensen said.

Christensen likes his teammates and coaches.  They are mentors and good influences.

“It is definitely worth giving up some extra activities because of everything I get from the team, coaches, and lessons learned,” Christensen said.

While Christensen is a very accomplished swimmer, he, just like everyone else, has his weak points.

“Every swimmer is different.  Usually one stroke is just not as strong—for me, it’s the breaststroke,” Christensen said.

Tommy will be attending Fordham University in New York next year.  He was recruited by their swim team and spent a weekend on the campus.  The swim team and coach were big factors in his choice, and he is just waiting to hear about scholarships.

“Tommy is truly a great leader in and out of the water.  He is very humble about all of his many swimming and academic successes.  What impresses me the most is when he is forced to talk about his best high school swim accomplishment, he will immediately say it was the 34 year old high school medley relay he was a part of, not the individual events.  As a swim coach, I have always contended that once swimming is no longer fun, kids will quit.  But, I can promise you that with all of his hard work he also had a lot of fun along the way!  It’s been a lot of fun having him on the team,” Swimming Coach Colleen Summer said.