Four St. Pete swimmers to characterize Team USA in Argentina

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Competitive swimmers spend hours coaching within the pool, however the subsequent problem dealing with a gaggle of St. Petersburg youth swimmers is out within the open water.

“They’re all counting on us, so our goal is to go out there and win and be our best,” swimmer Sawyer Hansen stated.

Four swimmers from St. Pete are representing Team USA within the World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships in Argentina.

“I take it with pride, I never take it as a nervous energy. I use it as more excitement just knowing that this is something so many kids dream of and I get to live that,” swimmer Brinkleigh Hansen stated.

What makes it much more particular is three of the 4 of them are siblings. Karrington, Brinkleigh and Sawyer Hansen get to share this expertise collectively.

“Oh yeah, this is the greatest thing to be able to compete and swim with my sisters, My family is always competitive always want to be the best you can be and being able to represent Team USA at the highest level is the best it gets,” Sawyer Hansen stated.

“We’ve grown up doing swimming together and all kinds of sports, but particularly swimming, swimming together in the same group same hour, like we see how hard each other are working, so I think that motivates each other, and now we get to represent with each other and go have fun,” Brinkleigh Hansen stated.

Karrington Hansen is away in school as she is a swimmer on the University of Kentucky, so whereas the three excessive schoolers prepare in St. Pete, she is coaching in Lexington.

The fourth member of the group is Ansley Bess, a freshman at St. Petersburg High School. She stated when she heard the information that she can be swimming for Team USA, she couldn’t imagine it.

“I kind of didn’t process it because I initially found out right after my race from my friend’s coach, and I just didn’t believe it because I’ve never performed on this stage before, so it was just really ‘Wow,’ to me, it was cool,” Bess stated.

But Bess is in luck: her teammate, Brinkleigh Hansen, has carried out on this stage earlier than. She has already represented Team USA, so she’s serving to her teammates ease the nerves and benefit from the expertise.

“It’s honestly such an honor, and it’s something that you never get used to. I started representing Team USA back in 2024 when I was a freshman at St. Pete High School and I’ve done many international competitions since then. I’d say my biggest one was one last year in Singapore and the feeling never goes away, it’s so incredible and I’m just glad that I can do it with my siblings and one of my teammates this time,” Brinkleigh Hansen stated.

The competitors runs from Sept. 3-6 in Sante Fe, Argentina. Sawyer stated they don’t have that many follow reps in open water, so they’re embarking on a brand new problem in a brand new nation.

“Open water is way different than in-pool swimming, in-pool swimming is like swim on your own, it’s your own lane, but open water, there’s so many people around you — it’s aggressive fighting, kicking everything you can think of so you got to be mentally tough and fight through adversity,” Sawyer Hansen stated.

They will put all that coaching to the check in Argentina in opposition to the very best younger swimmers on the earth and can attempt to carry dwelling gold.