“[The] most influential people in my life are my coach and parents.”
When I asked Trinity Bush about the most influential person in her life, without skipping a beat, she replied, “my coach for one since he brought me where I am today.” She smiled and said, “my parents also push me in ways that I’m grateful for”. I asked who introduced her to swimming, and Bush answered, “my dad wanted me just to learn how to swim but I got more into it.” Her parents supported her in this dream of swimming, which brought her to where she is today.
“I would say from eight or nine years old, I started getting more into the competitive level.”
Bush has been swimming for most of her life, but at the young age of eight, she decided this was her passion. When I asked how she felt at tryouts at Helix, Bush described feeling nervous and excited. “Just me and the pool” she hums and tells me she confided in her mom, “my mom, I just told her I was nervous and she was like oh you’ll do fine.”
“If you want to be the best you have to do this”
Trinity, were there any challenges you had to overcome that made you the swimmer you are? “Yes, many of the events I swim are very hard but I try to push through it to overcome and succeed.”
Bush goes on about how practice is something that she struggles with along with finishing sets, but she keeps in mind that these exercises make her faster and stronger saying, “if you want to be the best you have to do this” and that’s a winner mentality. I ask if she considers herself popular, “I would say I’m in the mix, I think a lot of people know who I am but I don’t think they all know who I really am” Bush pauses then replies, “a little popular maybe”.
“I feel very excited, accomplished”
I laughed asking about playlists before her events, she giggled “I have like 90’s rock songs on it, a little bit of pop, its kinda like whatever pops up.” Bush shrugged, smiling. I questioned if she grew up with siblings “I have a younger sister, she doesn’t swim but she is a competitive dancer.” I asked if her parents coming to her swim meets affects her performance, Bush thinks then responds “my parents do come to a lot of my meets, sometimes we split up when my sister has a rehearsal at the same time, I think I swim the same but it is nice seeing them there.” A bit of an entourage doesn’t do harm.
Trinity, how do you feel after getting first in an event? “I feel very excited, accomplished, when I do good on one event I feel excited to swim the next one” Swimmers swim around 3 events in a day.
“I’m exhausted, tired because my mindset is already down”
I ask Trinity how a hard day at school affects her practice, dryland everything. She hums “I’m exhausted, tired because my mindset is already down but once I see my friends it goes back up, I feel excited again” Trinity practices everyday after school and sometimes even on Saturdays, that’s true dedication to your sport to give up your weekends. I ask if Bush eats before games “so for me it’s very hard to eat since of my nerves so I just drink a protein shake or a banana” she hums continuing to say “at meets I usually just snack on stuff”. One thing that brings Trinity’s motivation down is discomfort, saying how she cant be on top of her training if she is uncomfortable or in pain, it is hard to push through such things.
“I want to try to make it to the Olympic trials”
I asked, are we gonna see Trinity Bush in the Olympics? She laughed. “I definitely want to do sports in college, and at least try to make it to the Olympics trials and hopefully the Olympics.” She smiled when I questioned if she’d ever thought this sport wasn’t for her. “Um no, not really.” Bush and shrugged when I asked if it’s always clicked. “There’s been times when I feel down when I don’t do so well. But I keep my head up, and I’m happy and excited again.” There’s no doubt about it– this sport was made for her.
“It’s going to be challenging since it is one of the hardest sports”
She smiles thinking about advice for younger students who want to become swimmers. “I would just say get in the water and start with the basics, it’s going to be challenging since it is one of the hardest sports.” I asked her to elaborate on swimming being one of the hardest sports. “Because what I heard is that in swimming you use a lot of different muscles and you need consistency.” Bush uses soccer as an example, saying, “you mainly use your legs, but in swimming it’s your core, your arms and legs.”
Would you like to dedicate this interview to anyone? I asked, and she replied, “My coach pushed me to do my best and my parents for getting me into swim, so I’d like to dedicate it to them.”
