College Head of Swimming, Deborah Huggett, proudly updates us on OS Elinah Phillip's Olympic ambitions:

OS Elinah Phillip (BH, 15-19) is now studying Natural and Applied Sciences on the Pre-Dentistry track at Florida International University where she is also a student athlete in the sport of swimming. 

Elinah is a talented swimmer who recently returned to the pool after 8 months out of the water due to training restrictions caused by the pandemic. She returned to her university and their strict athletic bubble to resume training in January. It was challenging building fitness and becoming competition ready, but the coaches and team have provided the right support and environment that allowed her to regain momentum quickly after a prolonged hiatus in training. Elinah is loving the atmosphere of the team and the support of like-minded student athletes.

After training for two months she is already close to her best times in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle events. Her dedication and determination allowed her to win a second place individual silver and 2 relay gold medals in the Conference USA championships which includes universities from the southern states. 

Her training base and the progress she has made in such a short time have meant that she can now shift her competitive focus to preparing to meet the Tokyo Olympic Games qualification standards.

We wish her luck.

*Elinah is a British Virgin Islander swimmer. She previously competed in the women's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. The first Olympic swimmer to represent the British Virgin Islands and aged just 16, Elinah ranked 48th with a time of 26.26 seconds.