12-year-old Seymour swimmer enjoys medals podium

Several Olympic swimmers have stood on the medals podium at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis.

After placing eighth in the 100 backstroke last weekend at the Indiana Swimming SwimFest Long Course Championships, 12-year-old Katie Turner of Seymour can now say she knows what it’s like to stand on that podium.

“You see pictures of Olympians standing up there, and you’re just like, ‘Oh, I’m standing there, too,’” Turner said. “It means a lot because not a lot of people can do that, and I think I can keep on improving and getting faster and, hopefully, getting to the point where I can go to the Olympics and break all the records in backstroke and freestyle.”

It was her second time on the medals podium at the championships.

“When I was 10 years old, I got fourth in the 100 free and eighth in the 100 back, so it was sort of like when I was 10 again doing it,” Turner said.

Turner qualified to compete in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 50 backstroke and 100 backstroke at SwimFest, and she has prepared all week for the USA Swimming Central Zone Age Group Championships, which run Friday through Sunday at Donner Park Pool in Columbus.

There, she will swim the 50 and 100 back events as well as the 50 free. She already had qualified for the zone meet in the 50 free and 100 back, but she met the Triple A standard in the 50 back at SwimFest.

This story appears in the print edition of The Tribune. Subscribers can read the entire story online by signing in here or in our e-Edition by clicking here.