-making waves in and out of the pool

In the world of Guyanese aquatics, where most swimmers take the plunge into sprint

swimming, at the age of 20, Soroya Simmons is finding her niche in long distance and open water swimming.

Additionally, the long distance swimmer, who has a penchant for sarcastic humor, is one year from going the distance in completing her degree in Medical Rehabilitation, specializing in physiotherapy, at the University of Guyana.

Standing at just over 5”4, she is witty, sarcastic, driven, and loves life. Soroya Amanda Simmons was born June 28, 1996, and adamantly holds to the fact that she falls under the Zodiac sign of Cancer – something you would not argue if you valued your life.

Born an only child, she constantly had her head in a book, since from a young age, her mother always read to her. All that changed, however, when she was seven-years-old. Her mom had taken her along to meeting she had at the Tower Hotel Poolside.

“I decided that the best thing to do was jump into the deep end of the pool while no one was looking,” Soroya recounted.

“It was learning to doggy paddle, making it to the wall and climbing out of the pool that I remember feeling accomplished about…I learned to swim out of sheer need to survive,” she added, laughing.

It was this experience that would shape her life for the next 13 years. After the “incident” she was enrolled in summer swimming classes two weeks later, giving her an activity to do during the August holidays.

“After the holiday I just continued swimming and as I started going to training more regularly I was enrolled in a club and starting doing more competitions and it just progressed from there,” she added.

The former Marian Academy student was always an academic and is by definition another one of the “Marian babies.”

She attended Marian Academy for 13 years of her life, from the nursery, to the primary level and finally graduating after completing the high school level. She eventually left the school to attend neighbouring Queen’s College for one year of sixth form.

“I actually got passing marks for QC when I wrote common entrance, but I didn’t want to go there,” said Soroya.

“It was a sense of familiarity, I didn’t want to leave Marian, Marian was all I knew and I just couldn’t tear myself away and look I ended up right back at QC for sixth form so it worked out,” she laughed.

Being the bookworm, she took to subjects like English and Literature like a fish to water, and those were two of the subjects she excelled in. She counts herself an academic but is very much aware of the subjects she is weak in.

“I’m obviously gifted at some stuff than others; English and Literature were two of my best subjects due to my love of reading. I loved the poems, and I didn’t mind writing all the essays since I loved writing,” she stated.

“I disliked math, and I absolutely hated physics but I just loved Biology.”

Soroya was one of the students in the science stream and in fourth form at the time of streaming, she had no idea what she wanted to do. She just felt that from the science stream she could do practically anything.

It wasn’t until the swimmer was in fifth form that she stumbled on physiotherapy, something that would become her passion. And did it happen in the most ironic of ways! The future physiotherapist had her first major swimming injury and had to attend therapy sessions as part of her recovery.

“I had always known physiotherapy; it was just at that time when I got that injury, that I fully understood what was wrong and how it was being fixed.

“I guess from there my interest grew and I fell in love with it,” she recounted. It certainly did not hurt that Soroya’s grandmother was a physiotherapist and she had an example to emulate.

“I want to get my Master’s in Physical therapy and go along the lines of Sports Therapy, so it’s really a Master’s in Sports Science I’m going after,” she finished.

Soroya has excelled in the classroom, performing well in both the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC)and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE). The only reason she did not do the second unit of CAPE was because she did not need the second unit to enter into the Medical Rehabilitation programme at UG.

Like any National Athlete, the swimmer has had her fair share of tours for the country and has represented Guyana multiple times. She has travelled to Suriname, French Guiana, Barbados, Trinidad, Aruba, Curacao and Mexico-the last country being her favourite trip thanks to the culture of Mexico.

There is more to Soroya than academics and athletics and she is actually an avid reader with some of her favourite books being the Harry Potter series and the timeless classic of Jane Eyre. She is also a comic book fan, favouring the Marvel Universe with her favourite character being Tony Stark’s Ironman.

It is not wise to pick a fight with her when it comes to her comics. Her interest also extends to the world of Japanese comics called manga. She is also capable with a compound bow and arrow and learning Japanese in her spare time.

When it comes to swimming accomplishments, she holds records across the 15-17, and 18 and over age groups in the 50,100 and 200 metre back strokes, something she is extremely proud of. However, admittedly, most of her notable accomplishments have come in recent years since figuring out what her niche is.

“For me, I’ve always been better at longer distances and that’s where I found my niche. I started experimenting with open water swimming last year since my cousin in Trinidad had been inviting me for years to do the Maracas Bay Open Water Swim meet and I finally decided to give it a try. I did the 2650km and found I loved it,” she stated.

This year Soroya did the same Maracas Bay Open Water Swim in the 5000km distance and finished 4th overall for females.

“I entered the race with much trepidation but once I hit the water all my fears just faded away,” she stated, “Once I hit the first lap and started the second lap I definitely felt I could do this and I did.”

Now back home and continuing her focus on open water swimming, she is looking towards the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and hopes to represent Guyana. Her biggest motivation comes from her determination and drive to make an impact in the Guyanese sporting community.

“I want to responsible for some sort of change. Guyana has such great potential in sports but our professionals don’t stay and as an athlete I see everything. There’s so much that can occur if only there was support for our athletes and I want to be someone whose name is in the conversation years down the line.

“I want to sit back and say, yes I played my part.”

Those are lofty goals that perhaps the young Soroya, who spent most of her time in the slice of heaven carved out in Moruca running trails, swimming in ponds and lakes and enjoying being free, did not even forecast.

With her ambition, determination, drive and passion, and the supporting cast of Dorado Swim Club –the club she is a part of- her swimming goals are definitely attainable.

She credits the attitude of Dorado towards swimming as well as their understanding of her academic interests as part of the support system she can rely on.

Soroya embodies what her favourite Harry Potter house Slytherin stands for: Determination, ambition and the will to succeed.