Rising backstroke star Iona Anderson on balancing year 11 and seven pool sessions a week
At 16 rising backstroke star Iona Anderson is no stranger to
planning her week. Balancing year 11, homework and the training load that comes
with being an elite swimmer, including seven pool sessions a week.
In 2019, she won two gold medals at the Swimming Australia
Age Group National Championships in the girls 15 100 and 200 backstroke.
Two years on she broke fourteen WA State Records across five
age categories in just one remarkable swim, by clocking 2mins 7:61secs in the 200m
backstroke at the WA State Championships.
Results like these have come from a dedicated training
schedule that also balances her education.
“My home club is Breakers Swim club, located at Craigie
Leisure Centre. In my early days at Breakers, George Harnetty and Karen Briggs
shared the coaching role and were the first coaches helping me begin my career.
“Later on, Harry Clark became my coach and just early last
year I started training part time with Will Scott [WAIS Senior Coach].
“I do a total of seven pool sessions and two gym sessions a
week. I swim on Monday morning and afternoon, Tuesday and Thursday afternoon
with Breakers (swim club), Wednesday and Friday morning (with gym afterwards)
and Saturday morning at WAIS.”
Iona has found a way to balance the training while
completing her high school studies.
“In previous years, I have managed to balance my training and
study. But at the start of this year my training increased and it was harder to
manage with school.
“Amanda Schonfeld, the WAIS Athlete Wellbeing &
Engagement Advisor for swimming, has helped me balance this workload by having
a meeting with my school and discussing my school/swimming life balance.
“She has helped me to understand the requirements needed to
achieve an ATAR and how to manage my school and training load.”
Amanda Schonfeld has worked with Carine Senior High School
to work out the balance for Iona to succeed at both.
“Iona’s school, Carine High, have been really good with
supporting her through her ATAR subjects, reducing her load and completely
changing her timetable so she can train in the mornings and get back to school
without missing classes,” Schonfeld said.
“When I met with her at the end of last year, I told her
about this thing called an Endorsed Program, where effectively you write a case
study on yourself as an athlete and that counts for a subject in year 11 and
12.
“The program allows athletes to only have to do four ATAR
subjects plus the Endorsed Program, effectively giving them two to three free
periods a day, so they have the time to train.
Iona’s school has furthermore agreed to allow her to complete
exams at times that work around training, instead of the usual Wednesday
morning slot that the remainder of the school must comply with.
Schonfeld reiterated the importance of working with her
school, “the balance can be there if the school is supportive. Iona is a really
lovely, hard-working and humble kid and I’ll be working with her the whole way
through.
“We never want an athlete to have to choose between sport or
school/university. You can achieve really well from both with the right communication
and organisation.
With a big year ahead for Iona, she is currently preparing
for the National Age Championships which will be held in Adelaide next month.
“My goal is to make the Junior Australian Team and compete
at Junior Worlds.”
To read more about Endorsed Programs, head to: https://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/syllabus-and-support-materials/endorsed-programs