Sara Curtis: Virginia Modified Extra Than Her Swimming: “I Don’t Bring Fear To The Blocks Anymore”

When Sara Curtis left Italy final fall to hitch the University of Virginia, she anticipated sooner coaching, more durable competitors, and a brand new means of balancing swimming with faculty life.

She didn’t anticipate the largest change to occur in her personal mindset.

Less than a yr later, the 19-year-old Italian is making ready for the European Championships as one of many continent’s prime medal contenders. Her first season in Charlottesville has already produced a sequence of career-defining performances, together with the European document within the ladies’s 50m backstroke and Italian information in each the ladies’s 50m and 100m freestyle on the Settecolli Trophy in Rome.

For Curtis, nonetheless, these performances are the results of one thing deeper than sooner swimming.

“I completely changed my perspective on both sport and life over the last year,” she told to Lia Capizzi for Italian Corriere della Sera. “The training became much more demanding, and the results followed.”

That transformation didn’t occur with out challenges.

Along with adapting to one of many strongest faculty packages within the nation underneath Todd DeSorbo, Curtis additionally confronted the educational calls for of being a psychology main. Rather than taking simpler freshman programs, she instantly enrolled in lessons like statistics and neuroscience.

“It made my life harder,” she admitted.

During one significantly irritating week, Curtis overslept earlier than a 7 a.m. apply whereas making ready for a statistics examination.

“I woke up at 7:07 and rushed to the pool completely panicked,” she said to Corriere della Sera. “Todd could see something was wrong. I told him how stressed I was about the exam, and the next day he gave me the morning off.”

Curtis says these moments confirmed her one other aspect of Virginia’s teaching workers.

“They expect the best from us, but they also understand we’re young and dealing with real challenges. We regularly meet with a sports psychologist, and there’s a lot of support.”

That help has translated immediately into her racing.

Just twelve months in the past, Curtis admits she usually carried disappointment from one exercise—or one race—into the following. Now, she approaches competitors very in another way.

“I don’t dwell on things anymore,” she mentioned. “If I wasn’t happy with a practice or a race, I used to carry that frustration around for days. I’ve gotten rid of those negative thoughts.”

Perhaps the largest instance got here after the 2025 World Championships in Singapore.

Curtis turned the primary Italian lady ever to succeed in a World Championship ultimate within the ladies’s 100m freestyle, however as an alternative of having fun with the second, she discovered herself overwhelmed by strain.

“I cried because I was desperate. I was living that experience the wrong way,” she mentioned. “I promised myself that would never happen again.”

Today, she says, the concern is gone.

“I know how much work I’ve done to get here. Why should I be afraid? That has been a huge mental switch for me.”

The confidence confirmed itself on the Settecolli Trophy in June.

Competing in entrance of her residence crowd, Curtis lowered her personal Italian information in each freestyle dash occasions whereas additionally breaking the European document within the ladies’s 50m backstroke. The meet carried additional which means as a result of it additionally introduced her Virginia teammates to Italy.

“It was so special having Todd and the Walsh sisters in Rome,” Curtis said. “I was nervous because I wanted everything to be perfect for them, like when you have guests at your house and you don’t want them to find a single speck of dust.”

For Curtis, coaching alongside world document holder Gretchen Walsh was one of many important causes she selected Virginia within the first place.

“I moved to Virginia because I considered Gretchen an idol and someone I wanted to learn from,” she mentioned. “She’s such a simple and positive person. We train together almost every day, and now I can call her a friend. That’s really special.”

Despite spending a lot of the yr within the United States, Curtis continues to work intently together with her longtime Italian coach Thomas Maggiora, who coordinates her coaching with DeSorbo.

“Thomas has been incredibly supportive,” Curtis mentioned. “He follows the program Todd prepares for me, and that’s not something every coach would be willing to do.”

Now, Curtis’s consideration turns to the European Championships in Paris, the place she enters as one of many favorites in each backstroke and freestyle.

“At the European level, I’m one of the swimmers to beat,” she mentioned. “I’m happy to be able to say that because it shows how much I’ve grown.”

She’s equally enthusiastic about Italy’s relay prospects.

With 15-year-old Alessandra Mao rising as one of many nation’s brightest younger skills after her standout performances on the European Junior Championships, Curtis believes the Italian ladies’s 4×100 freestyle relay is coming into a brand new section.

“Alessandra has been amazing,” Curtis mentioned. “I’m so happy for her, and for all of us. We’re going to have a lot of fun together.”

Asked what lesson she has taken from the previous yr, Curtis didn’t level to a race or a medal.

Instead, she talked about self-discipline.

Currently studying David Goggins’ ebook Can’t Hurt Me, she says one sentence has change into a part of her every day mindset.

“I believe discipline will always beat talent,” Curtis mentioned. “If talent doesn’t work, it becomes nothing.”

It’s a philosophy that appears to suit completely with the trail she’s taken over the previous twelve months.

The information have made Curtis considered one of Europe’s quickest sprinters.

The mindset might show to be what carries her even additional.

Quotes are translated from Italian. Original interview by Lia Capizzi for Corriere della Sera.