She always loved the water. Anna Vismara mainly spent her first years at the lake and in the swimming pool in the Italian municipality of Mezzegra. Once there, her mother told her to stay in the shallow water. The daughter did not obey, but climbed into the deep adult pool anyway. “My mother was so frightened that she immediately forced me to take swimming lessons,” the young woman from Bruges recalls. This laid the foundation for later competitive sport.
At the age of eleven, Anna Vismara joined the youth group of the Aarau swimming club Aarefisch. From then on she trained eight times a week. Just going into the water as a hobby was out of the question for her: “If I do something, I’ll do it right.”
In October they trained in the outdoor pool instead of in the hall
The swimmer knows the world of competitive sport from her parents: Giorgio Vismara and Jenny Gal are both judo trainers and have taken part in the Olympic Games several times. “You have always motivated me to do sports and stay active.” According to Anna Vismara, it was never a matter of aiming for a career in this field.
The 15-year-old has now won ten gold and four silver medals at the Swiss Junior Championships. Anna Vismara trains hard for her success: In the sports high school of the Alte Kantonsschule Aarau, she alternates daily swimming and school lessons on a tight schedule. In addition to training in the water, it also includes two to three strength units, Pilates and athletics.
“I always find time for friends”
“I usually leave the house at a quarter to seven in the morning and come back at nine in the evening,” says the woman from Bruges. She is also suspended from teaching at the sports high school for competitions. “But I usually have to catch up on school material on the way.”
Will there still be room for hobbies? Vismara says: “I don’t do anything regularly, but I always find time for friends.”
Training 2020 only possible to a limited extent
The elite swimmers of the Aarefisch swimming club, as Vismara has been since summer, train in the Telli indoor pool in Aarau. In addition, there are intensive weeks in the school holidays. According to the club’s website, there are up to four such camps per year at home and abroad. Due to the corona measures, the 2020 training was only possible to a limited extent. According to Vismara, there was not enough space to hold a three-week course, which should actually have taken place abroad in October, in the Telli. That’s why they switched to the Suhr outdoor pool. «That was very cold. Luckily the pool was heated, »says the swimmer from Brugg.
The Olympic Games are the long-term goal
Anna Vismara achieved an important milestone in her sports career last December. At the long track winter challenge in Uster, she qualified in the dolphin over 50 meters for the European Junior Championships 2021 in the pool. And broke her personal best and the Aargau records.
However, this did not make the young swimmer enthusiastic. She says: “It feels good for the first five to ten minutes, then it’s not special anymore. You train so hard to get better, but when you get there everything goes back to normal. ” In order not to put yourself under pressure with personal bests, it is important to only do the sport for yourself – not for the parents or the trainer.
Doesn’t want to devote himself entirely to competitive sport
In the long term, Anna Vismara is aiming for the Olympic Games. On the other hand, she has no plans for after graduating from high school. At the moment, the woman from Bruges could imagine studying, but not yet a subject. Vismara does not want to devote herself entirely to competitive sport – not that you spoil swimming.
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