Bolles swimmers from Canada, Greece, Guatemala, and Caribbean islands represented their home countries with pride at different Olympic trials meets this past summer.
The first trials meet was the Canadian trials this past May in Toronto. Here, Lila Higgo ‘25, Neala Klein ‘25, and Victoria Edgar ‘26 raced their hearts out.
Klein said the meet was a lot of fun and she really enjoyed the pool. She will always remember feeling the support of her family even from far away and the feeling of “walking out to the blocks and my family seeing me on TV,” making for an unforgettable experience in her swimming career.
Edgar’s main goal going into this Toronto meet was to make a junior team through success in her 100 breast, but she unfortunately became sick. “I had a little bit of health issues at the meet, but I still tried my best, which is honestly the only thing I could ask for,” she said.
The next major trials meet for Bolles swimmers was the Central American and Caribbean Swimming Championships, (CCCAN), which was a meet for all swimmers from Caribbean islands and Central American countries. This meet took place in Mexico in June. Although the swimmers were excited for their races, the meet did not turn out as expected due to Hurricane Alberto canceling a full day of racing. At this meet, Bolles swimmers Tristan Dorville ‘25, Antoine Destang ‘25, Liam Carrington ‘26, Lucero Mejia ‘26, Marleigh Howes ‘26, Riley Miller ‘26, and Heidi Stoute ‘27 competed.
Mejia, despite the bad weather overall, had the most unforgettable experience of all the Bolles swimmers at CCCAN, and will continue to relish the moment that the rain cleared and cleared her path to the Olympics, by swimming her best event, the 100 backstroke. “The weather was not great, there was a literal storm coming in, and there was a point where they said the meet was gonna be canceled but thank god it wasn’t and I got the opportunity to swim and get my cut.” 
Dorville did not qualify for the Olympics at CCCAN as he had hoped, but the meet was still an amazing learning experience. Dorville grew from the challenges he had to face at CCCAN, and while recalling this said, “I don’t like to blame my outcomes on other sources but, you know, there were some environmental issues, so I’m not gonna berate myself.”.
“You can’t just assume that conditions are going to be good. You have to be able to perform under any circumstances, even if they’re not suitable or reasonable,” Dorville said. Dorville plans on implementing these things in his training and learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Carrington had a good experience in the water during the meet. Carrington’s hopes for the meet were to, “drop time and race my best. I think that goal was accomplished.” He also went into the meet with details to implement into his swimming of the 100 backstroke, and carried that goal out too.
George Dovellos ‘26 swam for his home country at Cyprus Trials in Europe in June. Going into this meet, he wanted to improve his times and learn how meets overseas were run. Overall, Dovellos feels he achieved this goal, as he quickly developed a feel for the unfamiliar meet style. “It was really cool to see the similarities and differences that took place there, from different languages for take your marks to swimming in hot water while racing,” Dovellos said.
Despite any and all challenges that these swimmers faced, they represented Bolles well and took advantage of better opportunities that arose. The swimmers learned valuable lessons from these Olympic trials meets.
