Katy Ovington swimming at ASA Nationals
Katy Ovington formerly of Chester-le-Street ASC, has retired from competitive swimming, after competing for the last time in the Missouri Valley Conference Championship earlier this year.
Katy, a former pupil at Framwellgate School Durham, left Chester-le-Street ASC in December 2013 to take up a swimming scholarship with Southern Illinois University in the USA, where she joined a women’s squad comprising of swimmers and divers from the USA, China, Australia, Brazil, Poland, El Salvador, Canada, and Germany.
During the past three years, she has competed against top university teams across America, in the USA’s top flight, the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division 1 under coach Rick Walker, scoring highly in 100 & 200yds (remember its the USA folks!) Backstroke events.
However, whilst it may be the end of a long and successful swimming career, Katy plans to remain in the USA to complete her major in Kinesiology with a view to progressing to medical school. She has recently been nominated for the Southern Illinois University ‘Dorothy Davies Award’ and also the ‘Lingle-Ittner Family Memorial Award’, which are awarded for academic, athletic and leadership attainment within the universities Kinesiology department where Katy is actively involved and employed as a research assistant in a program developing the physical rehabilitation of cancer victims.
It is always fantastic to hear of ex-members’ continued success, both in and out of the pool and we wish Katy all the best with her future studies.
