Des Moines Sun

The Johnston City Council recognized one of the young constituents for her accomplishments.

Mayor Paula Dierenfeld called up Olivia Swalley, a student at Johnston High to recognize her achievement of being named the 2022 Iowa High School Girls Swimmer of the year. The mayor showcased a long list of her accomplishments in the sport, which continues to grow.

"And I’m going to read it all but I’ll tell you, this is an incredible list," the mayor said. "One of the things that impresses me is that each year the number of accomplishments has increased."

Olivia shared that she started swimming at age 7 or 8 at a country club and just fell in love with it. She started doing it year-round and it just spiraled from there. She also said that she does like all of the strokes but does think she specializes in breaststroke. One of the accomplishments she is most proud of is getting a state record this year. The council gave her a certificate in recognition of her accomplishments.

Olivia competed in November at the 2022 girl’s state swimming championship in the 200-meter inter-medley race.

During the state preliminaries, she tied the state time record for this race of 2.00.33. During the finals, Olivia said she knew she could push a little harder. Once she did her flip turn and only had breaststroke and freestyle left, which are her favorite strokes, so she went all out and won with a new state record time of 1.58.59, smashing the old record and being the first Iowa high school girl to record under two minutes for the race.