BISA Swimmers Break Records and Build Friendships at Tanzanian Nationals

This past weekend, nine Braeburn students in secondary traveled to Dar es Salam for the Tanzanian National Swim Championships. They competed against over 200 other swimmers from Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. Just qualifying for this event is an accomplishment and requires a great deal of dedication and training. Our swimmers were amazing, each one achieving personal best times (some by as much as 11 seconds). Baylor came away with the silver medal in 100m backstroke!

One advantage of participating in national level swim galas is being able to meet other students and swimmers from different parts of East Africa, making friends and cheering each other on. Our swimmers were able to meet—and in the case of Sholinke, compete against—Collins Saliboko, one of Tanzania’s Olympic swimmers. The girls were very excited to get a selfie with him. I was most proud of our students though, in how they ‘adopted’ a 10 year old girl competing, who was the only swimmer on her team to qualify, into our Braeburn group. Seeing that she didn’t have her own team, they brought her into our team area, cheered for her during all her events, and high-fived her when she was through. It’s actions like these that exemplify what an amazing community we have here at Braeburn.

Article by Christie Harrison