Emilia Bottas is a Finnish swimmer who represented her country Olympics in 2008, 2012, and 2016. She won the bronze medal at 2016 European Championships while participating for 4×100 meter relay from Finland.
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All about Emilia Bottas
Emilia Bottas made her Olympic debut at the of 15 back in 2008. She participated in European Championships for the first time in 2010 when she was 17. She won a bronze medal and made her country proud.
The swimmer has several national records in swimming, including 50 meters and 100-meter butterfly competitions. Emilia competed against Kelsi Worrell and got the first place in the American 4×100 meter relay in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Emilia Bottas was born in Vantaa on October 11, 1992. She is a part of the famous Swimmer list in Finland. Currently, she is one of the trending celebrities in sports. She is also famous for being the wife of race car driver Valtteri Bottas who she married in 2016.
How to become a professional swimmer?
In order to make your child participate in the Olympics, you need to know how fast he/she swims. He/she needs to show the credibility to be taken in the team. Olympics is very tough to crack and not everyone can make it. Here, we will give you some ideas to help your child train in the sports:
1. Keep practicing
To be able to apply for competitions, you need to first excel in the sport. Your child has to practice every day and take help from a local swimming team. You can start helping him/her swim at local parks, recreation center, school, or a swimming club.
Every team has a different level of swimmers, skill, speed, and age difference. As your child improves, he/she will level up. The process also keeps the child and challenges and he keep improving.
There are some swimming programs that help young kids or novice swimmers get better. You should help your child get proper training and supervision so that he gets better. Different places offer different types of competition. You need to find out how to get through to the city and state-level competitions and gradually improve.
The training sessions vary from children to adults. You can also opt for private coaching to get personalized attention.
2. Know all the rules
The governing body is USA Swimming for America and that manages all the national level competitions. Whereas, Fédération Internationale de Natation is the international body. They manage the sport at the Olympics and you need to approach them for opportunities. FINA sets the rules of the Olympics and the national body of USA Swimming needs to follow the same rules.
3. Minimum requirement
To meet the requirement of the USA Olympic team, an aspirant needs to come either 1st or 2nd at their trails. They also need to be a US citizen to represent the country. FINA allows a maximum number of 52 swimmer – two teams of men and women, 26 people in each team.
There are two entries from every country in each of the 26 different events – 13 for women and 13 for men. There is one entry for every six relays that needs three women and three men.
Along with the qualifying standards of USA’s Olympic Trials, there are A and B-level Olympic qualifying standards which every swimmer needs to meet to be a part of the Olympics. All these FINA Olympic participating rules are set as per the FINA Rule BL 8.3.6.1
There is an NF or NOC that can allow two qualified competitors in an individual event. Both the athletes can meet A qualification standards for their events or one athlete in each event for B qualification standards. If one country’s swimmer doesn’t make a minimum qualifying time, they can get the wild card as per FINA Rule BL 8.3.6.2
The National Federations and NOCs might allow swimmers irrespective of time standard where no swimmers have qualified in both teams or a swimmer qualified in one team. However, this is only possible when the swimmers have competed in the FINA World Championship in the previous year. The international board decides which swimmer is invited to be a part of the Olympic Games based on their performance.
How can you qualify for Olympics?
Assuming that the swimmers have an ‘A’ in the Olympic qualifying time must:
- Earn qualifying time to get into the trials of Olympic swim meet event
- Race and Olympic trails swimming competitors
- Finish at the top in at least two induvial events
- The place needs to come under top six of 100 meter and 200-meter freestyle relay teams.
Most of these depend on the fact that there are 26 shortlisted swimmers.
4. Keep the dream alive
Swimmers can become Olympics swimmer only when they practice and try. They need to put in the hard work, commitment, speed, ability, dedication, and luck. The biggest factor is your dream and what drives you.
5. Improve the technique
You need to fine-tune your technique all the time to make sure you keep at it. You need a coach who will guide you, work on you, and train you. He/she will help you improve your form. You need to try and secure a place on the regional level by the help of the coach and then get through to a higher level.
6. Try other international competitions
Don’t only aim for the Olympics and try to get through to it only. Olympics is usually the most difficult. You should try getting through to more international competitions in order to stack up against rival from all parts of the world.
When you race at an international level and away from the comfort of home or coach, it can be challenging and learning. Along with testing your skills it improves you mentally and makes you stronger.
Final thoughts
No matter how far behind you are at your journey to get through to Olympics, you need to keep trying. Consistency is key and you need to keep improving yourself to get through. Take inspiration from people like Emilia to improve yourself. You will get the right kind of direction in every sphere.
