“I just like the water,” the words of 14-year-old swimming enthusiast Jadyn George, one of Guyana’s brightest developing prospects in the pool.

Despite trying her hand at a number of other sports and extracurricular activities, including table tennis, tennis and dancing, swimming has always been the only thing that has managed to stick; all because Jadyn just could not shake her immense affinity for being in the pool and competing.
She is well-known as half of the George twins, the other being her sister Danielle, also a swimmer. Both are sisters of former national swimmer Onika George.
It was actually Onika who sparked her younger siblings’ interest in swimming.
“She had started swimming and we just wanted to try out the sport, and we just ended up being in this sport. Even though we did try other sports, swimming was the only one we stuck with,” Jadyn said.

That was over ten years ago. Today, George is Guyana’s leading swimmer in the Girls 13-14 category, which she has been dominating all season taking almost all of the age-group champion titles for every local meet this year.
“It was just fun. I would always get very hyper, just wanting to go in the pool, when I was younger. Yea, it is hard at times but just as long as you push yourself, after a while it becomes easier,” she shared.
This will be her first year in this new age category, but she’s still going in with confidence.
The timid third-former was Guyana’s only gold medallist on a team of 28 swimmers at the Goodwill Swim Meet last year.

George went in as the underdog ranked as low as eighth in some of her races, at the time when she was competing in the 11 to 12 category.
But she shocked all, even herself, when she was the first one the touch the wall – in her race, not once, not twice, but three times in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle.
The gold medal was the peak of Jadyn’s achievements as a swimmer, marking her first time medalling at the developmental meet, where Guyanese competed against swimmers from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, and St Lucia among other nations.
This year George is facing a similar situation, not ranking so well in several of her races, but she’s still holding out for another upset.

“I feel confident in myself. I know that I feel that I will improve my timings. I’m more and more confident that I could medal, day by day,” she related.
George is one of 40 swimmers who will be representing Guyana at this year’s Goodwill Swim Meet to be held in Guyana at the National Aquatic Centre from August 18 to 21.