Meet the Swimmer – Emma Cassell

Jen Tatters has kindly once again taken the time to produce a great piece on one of our athletes for our ‘Meet the Swimmer’ feature. Jen’s journalistic talent is a real asset to our COSASC newsletter and therefore many thanks to her again for producing the following engaging article on fellow athlete Emma Cassell.

“Don’t be afraid to do something different from someone else, swim your own race.”

Emma Cassell, 16, previously a swimmer at Middlesbrough Swimming club, started swimming relatively later than a lot of her teammates. She started swimming at the age of eight, but proved she was a quick learner as she went on to win multiple county and regional titles, including becoming World Schools Biathlon champion at the age of 12. At the age of 14, she became the National Champion in the 200 metres butterfly in her age group, stopping the clock in a time of 2:19.15.

The young swimmer from Hartlepool has had to make a lot of changes in a short space of time to fully commit to her goals, and attends Sunderland College which ties in with her swimming commitments in the Higher Education Performance squad. She has to wake up at 4am to make the journey through to morning training, and although she admittedly has to drag herself out of bed sometimes, she knows that it is worth it to reach her goals.

Emma made the decision to move to Sunderland after the departure of Middlesbrough’s head coach Lisa Bates. She decided a college course which would fit around her hectic swimming schedule was the best option, despite the mammoth journey at both ends of the day, which can take up to two hours.

Outside of the pool Emma could be described as quite a clumsy person: she has been to hospital multiple times just for falling over and giving herself concussion! Although many of her friends would describe her as “cheerful but dozy”, once she enters the pool she is very focused and hardworking, and seems to be more suited to swimming in water than walking on land.

On the rare occasion that Emma has spare time, she likes to go and see her friends and family, or watch repeats of her favourite programmes, ‘Wild at Heart’ and ‘Friends’. Spare time is rare for Emma due to the amount of travelling she has to do, and she often finds most of that time is taken up by with her college work.

When asked to describe her favourite type of music she said: “I just like happy music”, but later explained that her taste varies, she likes music in the charts, especially Ed Sheeran, but loves Bob Marley because it makes her feel happy.

Emma is easily pleased, and confides that her favourite food is lasagne. She also finds it hard to live without cheese, and when she tried to give it up for Lent she couldn’t cope anymore and had to give in!

Some swimmers might be slightly envious of Emma’s claim to fame, as she trained alongside Olympic swimmer Aimee Wilmott. Emma said: “Aimee was a great teammate and it was great because she had a lot of experience coping in tough situations. She used to help me calm down at big competitions like British Champs. She even helped me get ready for prom and was my photographer!”

The early wake up calls and the long trek to swimming show Emma’s commitment to the sport, and through sheer determination she knows what it takes to become a National Champion and medallist. Her piece of advice to aspiring swimmers is this: “Don’t be afraid to do something different from someone else, swim your own race.”