Please introduce yourself.
My name is Cristóbal and I am a final year student at Colegio Pedro de Valdivia Providencia, I have been a student here since play group.
Could you tell us how and why your passion for swimming started?
My passion for swimming began when I was five/six years old and one of my big brothers started swimming at Stade Francais in Chile. Being around his swimmers’ group and trainers from a young age, made me want to be part of the group, follow in his footsteps, and even try to surpass his achievements. Also, thanks to my father and older brothers, I have sports in my blood and not only enjoy swimming but all types of sports including football, basketball and cycling. It has encouraged me to have fun and enjoy what I wanted to do. I enjoy everything, I learn from life and take advantage of the privileges that not everyone has. I feel very lucky and am grateful for being able to do what I enjoy and pursue something different from a typical professional career. You have to do what you enjoy in life, and I don’t necessarily think that always attaining to get perfect marks academically means everything.
Has swimming opened up any new experiences or exciting opportunities?
Being part of a great competition team makes you seek new challenges and new experiences that help you to grow. It has allowed me to gain knowledge of how you can train better and learn how other swimmers train and work too. Fortunately for me, being awarded chances to travel to Cuba, Perú and Brazil was such a great learning experience. I travelled to Cuba for the Marcelo Salado Cup competition and it was incredible to see swimmers who didn’t have swimming goggles or a swimming suit still medals in the relays there winning their races! To be able to visit a country known for its sporting accomplishments and be able to compete against these swimmers and make friendships was an incredible experience. I was so happy to win two bronze.
In São Paulo, Brazil it was a very difficult challenge to race in the hot climate. To breath hot air during a demanding race was hard but a very good opportunity to learn new techniques to help with my swimming such as breathing through the nose.
In Regatas, Perú it was interesting to see how they train and how close they were as a team. They were like a family, and it reminded me of when I was younger and my brothers’ team Stade Francais in Chile. In Peru we won 3rd place as a team and came 2nd and 3rd place in the mixed and boys’ relays. I am currently preparing for the Winter National Championship in Chile. It will be a difficult competition because many Chilean swimmers now come from the USA to compete here, so there will be a lot of competition to reach the finals. I would like to win a place in the finals and maybe win, but as I always say enjoy the competition, have fun and do the best that you can do!
What skills have you learnt from your sports training?
Swimming has taught me confidence, a better mentality, motivation to succeed and resistance. Practicing these skills every day and improving is difficult, but with consistent hard work it can be done. My trainer has also helped me with my concentration, which used to be one of my weaknesses. Now, I can focus in competitions and use it as a strong tool when competing. Nobody likes defeat, for example a disqualification from simple details such as a touch against a wall. Now I know that accepting defeat it’s the best moment to learn whether you win or not. I always say this phrase from Rocky (Sylvester Stallone): I do not win anyone, time beats everyone.
Who is your favourite professional swimmer and why?
Michael Phelps, I idolise him. For me, it is hard to think of a better professional swimmer! He has world records in freestyle, butterfly and Individual Medley (IM) races, even when freestyle and IM wasn’t his best style to swim. Incredible! His words have a lot of meaning and his thinking has a lot of reason: “He who says he can, or he who says he can’t, are both usually right”. If you don’t believe it, it won’t happen, you have to have will and want to do it. He is a very motivational person and I like those kinds of people.
What are your hopes and dreams for the future?
As I always say: my health and family are the most important. Everything I do is for the good of me. I love to compete to win, but my strongest wishes are to have fun and enjoy what I do… Anything I do in the future whether I’m a professional swimmer, or I study a sports degree, it will be doing something I can enjoy and have fun with.
What advice would you give to any aspiring professional swimmers?
My advice for an aspiring swimmer would be that you will have to accept that it will be difficult to get what you want; it is not easy! It’s very hard to change your life and have the discipline to accept it and move forward, but you can do it if you want to do it, it all depends on what you want. In order to achieve what you want, you have to go through disappointments, mistakes and difficult moments but with focus and hard work you will get to where you want to be. Don’t wait for an immediate results or successes, the reward will eventually come, have patience!
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