The 19 year old Naomy Grand'Pierre is the first female swimmer to compete for Haiti in the Olymp
Naomy will swim for Haiti on August 12th.
Everything happened for a reason, when bad things happened it is important to take action. After Naomi's mother lost her cousins who drowned in the water back in Haiti, she was scared and worry about what can happened to her kids, she enrolled Naomy and her siblings in swimming class. Naomy was 10 years old.
Even though Naomy was born in the U.S, she decided to swim for Haiti in the Olympics.
Naomy says:" Growing up, my house was like a mini Haiti, even though we lived in America. We spoke French, we ate Haitian food, it was always Haiti first in our family and America second. When it came time to think about the Olympics I felt connected to Haiti and wanted to represent the country.”
“There were a lot of very lonely days. I would have to eat lunch by myself and walk to classes by myself. I also had to sacrifice a lot of time with my friends for school and swimming,” said Naomy.
She continues: "“There’s this thing that swimmers know about called croggle, which is when you cry in your goggles, and I definitely had a lot of croggle moments, but those situations made me stronger.”
Not having a role model, it became challenging for Naomy.
“There’s also no one I can really ask questions to or look up to as a model for what I should be doing, or really any specific guidelines to follow. In America, young girls who want to be swimmers have so many female Olympians to look up to, but for Haiti, I’m the first,” said Naomy.
Swimming is not something Haitian do often, but as the first female swimmer, Naomi wants to use this opportunity to invite Haitian and young women to use swimming as way of hope and pride.
Naomy wants to make an impact for swimmers in Rio and all over the world.“I want to continue swimming for Haiti and building the team, no matter how I do this Olympics,” she said.
Source: Maya Blackstone for The Inside Edition
