From sport to sport, then elementary schooler Alice Lu tried everything, yet did not find the one for her.
Then, she came across swimming. Now, Coppell High School junior Alice Lu swims for the varsity team.
“My mom enrolled me into different sports when I was younger so I could experience different things and find what I wanted to do later on,” Lu said. “After finishing elementary and middle school, I started getting busier, so I had to choose. Swimming was something I looked forward to every day.”
After starting at age 8, Lu participated in swim lessons until age 10, working on her skills and technique. At 11, she joined the Lakeside Aquatic Club team in Lewisville to swim competitively with others. In the club, she swims all four strokes: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. Already, she has broken many personal records in this and previous years.
“I wanted to challenge myself,” Lu said. “I really enjoyed taking lessons in swimming, so I just wanted to take the next step and compete.”
Lu’s childhood friend and CHS junior Emma Wei has seen her grow and compete throughout their years together.
“I’ve known her since kindergarten, but we’ve swam together since eighth grade,” Wei said. “We definitely got closer through swimming, and because we swim the same events and we’re around the same speed, most of the time we are competing with each other.”
After joining the CHS swim team in her freshman year, Lu immediately climbed the ladder and started swimming for the varsity team.
“She’s really tall and very strong. I got the feeling that she had been a really great swimmer for a really long time,” Coppell swim and dive team coach Jonathan Drori said.
Although Lu is perceived as great, she struggles to receive some of the necessary help. Nonetheless, she is able to overcome these challenges.
“She doesn’t always get the help that she needs because a lot of coaches just assume that she has natural talent, but there’s a lot that she needs to work on,” Drori said. “She’s one of those swimmers that has a good intuition for what needs to happen in the water. She surrounds herself with really terrific coaches and swimmers in her club and in high school.”
At Coppell, Lu swims four events, two relays, the 50-yard and the 100-yard freestyle.
Swimming for both team and club along being a student can be harsh with strict timings and routines every day.
“I have doubles on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and on those days I wake up at 4 a.m. to get to the pool and swim until 6 a.m.,” Lu said. “After third period, I go to swim and then straight to the club until 7:30 p.m. Later, I go home, eat, shower and do homework.”
Staying resilient and strong throughout the process, Lu powers through.
Along with competing, Lu has formed close friendships with others, one being senior swimmer Gabriella Pardo, whose relationship strengthened after competing together at state.
“She’s incredibly strong and she has amazing discipline,” Pardo said. “She’s a person who powers through that. She puts in the work, she goes to practice, she constantly wants to get better and she finds every opportunity she can to advance in who she is as an athlete.”
Lu approaches every event and challenge with a strong will and a determined mindset with dreams and the hope to continue her passion in college.
“She’s always been positive, and if not positive, then she’s learning from the negative moments,” Pardo said. “She’s moving on, she’s moving forward, she’s looking past them and she’s just becoming a better person.”
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