Resident Set To Swim In Olympic Trials

This Sunday, about 160 women will swim the 50M Freestyle race in the Olympic Trials, currently being held at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The top two swimmers will advance to London for the 2012 games.

Among those vying for the chance to be an Olympian is Brye Ravettine, a 21-year-old from Mahwah. Ravettine will be swimming on behalf of her college’s club team. The swimmer just completed her red shirt sophomore year at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Ravettine has been swimming competitively since she was 8 years old, and lately she’s been collecting awards and adding to her long list of accomplishments – She was the No. 1 ranked swimmer in the state in high school, was a four-year letterwinner at Immaculate Heart, four-time all-North Jersey, all-county and all-state honoree, and has picked up numerous individual medals from Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association meets over the past two years. Ravettine swam the second-fastest 50 free time in CCSA history, placing second in 22.70 at a conference meet. She also received an honorable mention at the NCAA Dvision I All-America Honors in 2012.  

The Mahwah native said this week’s trip to the Olympic trials is fulfilling a lifelong goal of hers. “This is obviously one of the biggest meets you can go to, and I am so grateful that I can be here,” she told Patch. “It’s hard to explain what the experience here is like. You are warming up next to Olympians, walking around seeing people you’ve always looked up to. You get to see them for the normal people they are…well, normal people who are freakishly fast.”  

Ravettine has two inspirations, she said, for wanting to compete among the freakishly fast – her love of the sport, and her family.  

“My mom has Cystic Fibrosis. It’s a terminal disease, and according to all of the doctors' diagnoses, she should be gone,” Ravettine said. “I have always said that I want my mom to see my swim at the Olympic trials, and this weekend she’s coming down here with my dad, sister and other family members, and she is going to watch me do it. That’s a big, big, big deal for us.”  

Ravettine’s mom was actually the one who got her interested in the sport, when she took her to swimming lessons offered at . “We had a pool, so my mom thought I should know how to swim,” she said. After watching the school’s club swim team practice, “I knew I wanted to be a part of it.”  

By age 9, Ravettine qualified for the New Jersey Junior Olympics.  

She continued to compete throughout her years at the , and schools in the Mahwah school district, and at IHA as a high schooler. This is the first time she will be competing in the Olympic trials.  

It is also the first time a Liberty swimmer will be competing. “My school has only had a swim program for two years, so the facts that we are already accomplishing such big things speaks to what a great program it is,” she said. “I absolutely love school, both academically and for swimming. It’s a great place.” 

Ravettine, who has been in Omaha all week, is set to swim the 50 Free, her best event, on Sunday.

According to a release from Liberty College, “preliminary heats for each event will be held beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern each day. The top 16 times from preliminaries in each event advance to that evening's semifinal round. The fastest eight finishers in semifinals qualify for the final. In order to make the U.S. Olympic team in an individual event, an athlete needs to finish in either first or second place in the final.”  

Fans can watch the meet and see results through live video streaming and posts on USASwimming.org. If Ravettine makes it to the top 16, her race will be shown on NBC.

Her goal, she said, "is just to keep advancing and keep getting better. There are a lot of big meets in swimming, and I just want to keep improving my times and enjoy my swimming years."

Get more information about the Olympic Trials in swimming here.

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