Athlete of the Week: Ashlee Linn

Riverview senior Ashlee Linn, 19, is an all-star swimmer for the Rams’ swim team and the Sarasota Sharks. Linn recently won a gold medal in the 200 IM (individual medley) and was the runner-up in the 100 backstroke at the Spring 2012 YMCA Short Course National Championship Swim Meet at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, N.C. Linn has accepted a swimming scholarship to the University of Florida with plans to major in pre-veterinary medicine. Before starting college, Linn will be heading to Omaha, Neb., in June to compete in the Olympic Trials for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

How long have you been swimming?
Since I was 5-and-a-half. I tried all the other sports — ballet, soccer, a little bit of basketball and even a little bit of Pee Wee football. My mom just one day threw me in the water, and I just joined a team in Indiana, Pa., and grew to love it.

When did you start on the Sharks?
When I was about 10 or 11.

How do you balance two teams at once?
Our Sharks coach, Steve Brown, gives us leeway when high school season comes around. We don’t have to go to so many club competitions. We start going to more club competitions when the high school season is over. He lets the high school swimming season come first during the season.

What is your best event?
It all depends. My first trial cut was 100 backstroke, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve become better at 200 backstroke and 200 IM and more sprint and freestyle events.

What is your best stroke?
Probably backstroke

What event do you like to swim?
I like the 200 IM or any kind of IM. IM stands for individual medley, where you get to do all the strokes, so you just get that variety.

Is there someone you admire in the swimming world?
Probably Rowdy Gaines and Teresa Crippen. I’ve gotten books from Rowdy, and his poster hangs on my wall, and he has been a good leader throughout his career. Teresa is a Florida Gator, and she has this confidence and is always on top of things and someone I want to be.

What is the worst part about your sport?
The commitment, definitely. You know, when you want to go to the beach all day and relax, but you have to wake up at 4 a.m. instead and go to practice. Then during the summer, you have to sleep between practices so you have enough energy to do your second 3-hour practice and do a good job. Coach Brown always says, “Perfect practice makes perfect.”

If you could do another sport, what would it be?
I’m not good at any other sports, and I don’t want do a sport if I’m not good at it.

Do you like to watch swimming on TV?
Yes. It’s so much better than golf. No offense to the golfers.

What are your feelings about the 2012 summer Olympics?
It all depends on what happens at trials. Obviously, every swimmer has the same goal — to make the team. For trials, I am going in open, mentally, and not thinking too hard about making a team but swimming to my maximum potential. I’m not going be a sore loser if I don’t make it; there is always another chance. I’ll still be cheering people on, of course. I swim because I love it, not because my mom forces me or my parents think I will get a scholarship out of it — it just happened that way. I couldn’t imagine my life with out it. But don’t get me wrong, there are days I don’t want to go.

What do you do in your spare time?
Sleep, lounge on the couch, eat. Mostly sleep.

If you could listen to music while swimming, what would it be?
I have a range of taste I like — from country to dubstep and techno and then there is hip-hop. The 200 IM is like a mid-sprint, so probably dubstep because it has a drop.