{"id":618,"date":"2016-09-20T12:51:04","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T16:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=618"},"modified":"2016-09-20T12:51:04","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T16:51:04","slug":"adam-zaidi-future-olympian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/adam-zaidi-future-olympian\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Zaidi: future olympian?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Vlada Rauner, staff writer<\/em><\/p>\n

All his senses are dulled, it’s just him, the water, and his drive to win.<\/p>\n

Adam Zaidi, a junior at River Hill High School, has been competitively swimming for 12 years. He has been on the Naval Academy Swim Team and ranks as the second best overall swimmer in Howard County and first in breaststroke.<\/p>\n

This past summer he found out that he has a chance to secure a place on the Pakistani Olympic Swim Team. He was first told the news when his father returned from attending a wedding in Pakistan. \u201cThe bride\u2019s husband turned out to be the head coach for the Pakistan team there,\u201d says Zaidi, \u201cand he offered me and my sister a chance to be on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this level of competitive swimming, Adam spends two hours in the pool along with an hour of running and another hour of weightlifting on a daily basis. With all of these activities Adam\u2019s free time is limited. \u201cI haven’t hung out with friends since my drivers education class,\u201d which he took last summer. \u201cIt sounds like a constant excuse to not to go to stuff but it\u2019s the honest truth,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

On top of this, he has had to handle a strenuous junior year workload. Adam is taking three AP classes and three GT classes this year. With this immense amount of homework he often goes through his day on less than six hours of sleep.<\/p>\n

When it comes to other swimmers applying to get onto the Pakistani team, Zaidi has an advantage. \u201cNobody there trains as hard as me, and I think that practice does indeed make perfect,\u201d he explains. \u201cI think that if I put in a high level of dedication, than I can go almost anywhere.”<\/p>\n

Swimming at this level will tire even the best out. \u201cI hate swimming half the year\u2026 I just get sick of it sometimes.\u201d Despite these temporary feelings of doubt, he keeps pushing himself to be the best that he can be.<\/p>\n

Swimming has been a part of Adam\u2019s life for a very long time, but it isn’t the only thing that is bright in his future. \u201cI also want to pursue a career in engineering,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n

Even with his busy schedule he has maintained a high GPA throughout high school, making sure not to waste his education. \u201cI\u2019ve come so far,\u201d he says, \u201cI don\u2019t want to go back now\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Vlada Rauner, staff writer All his senses are dulled, it’s just him, the water, and his drive to win. Adam Zaidi, a junior at River Hill High School, has been competitively swimming for 12 years. He has been on the Naval Academy Swim Team and ranks as the second best overall swimmer in Howard…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/IMG_3393.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":620,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions\/620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}