In 2010, Olivia Smoliga set her first state record as a sophomore in the 100 yard backstroke. Since then, she has set two more state records and gone to Olympic Trials, missing the Olympic cut by less than a second. Last month, Smoliga committed to Georgia University on a swim scholarship. In conversation with The Oracle, she talked about this and more.

On potentially being an Olympian:

“I’m focusing on taking everything one step at a time. I have high school State coming up in a couple of weeks. Then, I have Worlds and Nationals. From there, I start my collegiate career. In the back of my mind, becoming an Olympian would be sweet, and it’s always there. It is my biggest goal. I love seeing my improvement and meeting new people on my journey to the Olympic trials.”

On choosing the University of Georgia:

“I love Georgia. It was between USC and Georgia. I chose Georgia because of the southern hospitality. Also, [the] coach is so caring. He’s the guy I’ll be spending my next four plus years with. He talked about the way he will train me for the Olympics and my plan to get better to make it to the top. The coach was a Southern guy who my parents loved. He’s very old- fashioned, but also very approachable. It was a great fit all around.”

On her love of swimming:

“I love swimming. I love being in the water. It relaxes me and calms me down. I love turning into competition mode. I love seeing my times drop and how my hard work translates into the meets. I love making myself stronger and competing with the top rocks in the nation.”

On what keeps her motivated for high school meets:

“The biggest challenge for me is keeping up my times during dual meets. I recently just did a [100 backstroke in] 57 [seconds] at Evanston. The national record is 51 [seconds]. I would like to be closer to [that] time. The biggest challenge is thinking about State at every dual meet and knowing that I have to be a lot faster in order to drop my time for efficiency.”

On staying humble:

“I know there are also so many girls out there on a larger scale who are better than me. My coaches [Kelly Timson and Steve Iida] always tell me that there’s always someone better [than me]. [Knowing that] makes me work that much harder to get better. That’s the reason why I’m in the pool everyday.”