At the young age of four years old, Lakes sophomore Mitch Gedville was influenced by his parents to give swimming a try. He started taking lessons every week and overall did not enjoy it. Even though he wasn’t enjoying it, he continued to swim which has led him to where he is today. Now, Gedville is a regular at the top of the leaderboards.
Gedville practices up to eight times per week, while also competing in the occasional weekend meet. This hard work and dedication has clearly paid off as in 2021, Gedville managed to place 7th in the state of Wisconsin. Not only was this a big accomplishment, but this gave Gedville the desire to strive in swimming.
“When I got 7th in state at 13,” Gedville said when asked what his favorite memory from swimming was. “That really proved to myself that I can accomplish more than I thought I could.”
One of Gedville’s biggest inspirations is 12-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte. Lochte has represented the United States in four Olympic Games and has inspired Gedville’s goal of swimming in the Olympics one day. Another goal of Gedville’s is to swim at the Division 1 level in college.
“My goal is to swim at the University of Texas or the University of Florida,” Gedville said.
Gedville does most of his swimming at the Rec Plex in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, on the Pleasant Prairie Patriots. He has swam there for the last ten years and achieved many accomplishments along the way. He is currently the top ranked swimmer in the program in the 15-18 year old age group. He has competed against swimmers from many states including: Colorado, Florida, Wisconsin, Illinois, and more. Gedville looks forward to one of his biggest meets yet, in Florida, later this year.
In his latest event, in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, Gedville had three personal best times in the 100 freestyle, 100 backstroke, and the 50 individual medley.
It is very impressive that Gedville has been able to achieve all of this while only being 15 years old. This shows that he has a very bright future in swimming and that his goals of making conference, making state, and swimming in college are not out of reach.
