Cheer on Colleyville product at Rio
Looking for a local athlete to support at the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio?
Look no further than the city of Colleyville, whose long-time resident and Nolan High School graduate Katie Meili will be representing the U.S. swimming team in the women’s 100m breaststroke and the 4x100 medley relay.
Meili, who qualified for the Olympics by finishing second in the 100m breaststroke event at the Olympic Trials in Omaha June 26-July 3, said qualifying for the Olympic team is almost surreal.
“I felt an overwhelming sense of joy combined with relief,” Meili said. “I couldn’t believe I had actually made the team, a dream I have had since I was a little girl. Olympic Trials is a stressful meet. Because the U.S. is so good at swimming, you have to prepare and go into it knowing that you could have the best swim of your life and still not make the Olympic team.
“You are forced to put yourself in a scary and vulnerable place to accomplish your goals. Making the team is exciting, but also a relief that the hardest part is behind you.”
Meili began swimming competitively at the age of eight and continued into her teens at Nolan Catholic High School.
Current Nolan coach Lauren Black said that a watch party has been organized for Aug. 7 (the day of the 100m breaststroke) at the school for the team members and others to cheer on the Viking alum.
Meili went on to Columbia University and eventually won a bronze medal in 100 breaststroke at the 2013 NCAA Nationals and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in psychology.
Columbia University swim coach Diana Caskey said she could tell early on that Meili had something special.
“Katie was always a tenacious competitor,” Caskey said. “She did not like to lose. She had a strong drive to succeed and was always genuine, positive and appreciative. She could bounce back from adversity better than almost anyone I have coached.”
Michael Sabala is a former assistant coach at Columbia who was with Meili when she qualified for the Olympics and said it was quite an emotional experience.
“After the finals session ended, Katie hugged her family, and then me,” Sabala said. “Bill, Katie’s dad, teased me that I got the biggest cry from Katie. Like everyone that knows her, we were all so happy for her that night, and it was just such a privilege to spend the night with Katie and her family in celebration.”
Meili, Kelsi Worrell, Allison Schmitt and Natalie Coughlin captured a gold medal at the 2015 Pan American Games in the 4x100m medley relay.
She won her first career national title in the 100m breaststroke at the 2015 Phillips 66 National Championships.
Meili, who now resides in Charlotte, N.C., said she plans to continue swimming after the Olympics and perhaps go to law school or pursue her masters in psychology.
She said her passion for the sport has spawned a lifelong love affair that has helped her develop as a person and shape her life in many ways.
“I love swimming,” Meili said. “I love that it’s filled with highs and lows, triumphs and failures, good and bad. It’s an unforgiving sport — one in which you have to work extremely hard almost constantly in order to be successful. It teaches you how to be a strong person and it teaches you a lot about life.
“I’ve learned lessons in this sport that I never would have learned if I wasn’t a swimmer. It’s where I’ve met most of my lifelong and best friends, all of my mentors, and my greatest role models. It has given me so much and to say I’m grateful is an understatement ... I owe almost everything in my life to this sport and the people in it.”
This story was originally published August 2, 2016 at 11:21 AM with the headline "Cheer on Colleyville product at Rio."