By Isabella Tsai
Staff Writer
Photo by Luke Quesada
Staff Photographer
According to sophomore Hannah Kim, there’s nothing better than swimming with friends. Kim, who is a member of the SPHS swim and water polo team, feels lucky that she gets to do this almost every day.
Kim learned how to swim when she was seven, taking classes at the South Pasadena San Marino YMCA. In fifth grade she joined the South Pasadena Sea Tigers and began swimming competitively. Kim continued to work on improving her race times throughout middle school, and made the high school varsity swim team in her freshman year.
She considers the 50 and 100 freestyle to be her best races, and enjoys swimming them the most. At the Rio Hondo League meet this year, Kim dropped two seconds from her race time, making the last meet of the season a memorable one for her.
To her, the hardest part about swimming is the rigorous training to keep up and improve race times.
Kim had no prior experience with water polo, but decided to try out in the winter. To her surprise, she made the junior varsity team.
“Learning how to play water polo was challenging. The hardest part was learning how to cooperate with a team and how to hold the ball properly,” Kim said.
Kim’s goal next year is to make varsity swim and water polo, and wants to develop healthy lifestyle by playing the sports she loves best.
