Junior Dan Han has been swimming ever since he was seven years old, taking lessons. He has since moved on to bigger and better things, swimming for three teams including South’s own.

He first joined the South West Aquatic Club at age ten then moved onto Central Bucks Swim Team a few years later. He quit SWAC to focus on CBST, a more intense and competitive program.

CBST is a US swim team that sends swimmers to big meets such as Olympic Trials and National Championships. Han has participated in many of these meets and has even gone to Zones meets, which is an exclusive meet only for swimmers with fast qualifying times.

Han said Zones was his favorite meet because he had “never seen so many talented swimmers at one time,” and it “created a really competitive environment for everyone.”

The top three swimmers at Zones from each state get to swim for the Zone team and compete against other teams.

He qualifies for these meets by exceling at the 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle, and 100m butterfly events. He said his favorite out of the three is the 100m freestyle.

Han said, “I love that it’s not too short and not too long,” even though he feels it is very tiring. He thinks it his best event because he is always training with teammates that were national 100 freestyle competitors. This created an environment where he could focus and improve in the event.

His favorite memory from his already long swimming career is when he got to visit the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs with his teammates from CBST.

He lists off the “food, weight room, dorms, pool, and cool equipment” as “over-the-top.” For a full week he would wake up, swim, eat, and sleep. “It was really tiring but totally worth it,” he said.

Swimming all year-round is key for Han to improve. In the winter, he swims for South’s Titans and in the summer he is at the Warrington Swim Team. He swims at CBST almost year-round, with about a month of break in the spring and summer.

Han believes that the South swim team is a very talented group. He also advised, “They do need a lot of improvement in the pool.”

He hopes that the team takes it to a “whole new level,” wins more meets this year, and gets more swimmers into districts and possibly states.

The thing that he loves most about swimming is that he can “see friends and myself work really hard for something that they really deserve at the end of the season.” He understands that the sport is a process and it requires lots of focus and preparation.

Han also likes the fact that a swimmer has to do all the work for him/herself for improvement. A swimmer doesn’t have to rely on others to do their part in helping him/her improve.

Swimming comes with its many hardships and difficulties. Personally, Han thinks waking up for morning practice and jumping into “freezing water,” often at 6AM or earlier, is the hardest part. Waking up that early, consistently, requires lots of dedication.

Types of practices can vary according to the time of the season, but a typical practice in the middle of the season is about anywhere from 5000-6000 yards of swimming. Practices last usually two hours or a bit longer and encompass some or all of distance swimming, sprinting, dryland exercises, kicking, drills, etc.

Because of his success at this stage of his life, he has many big goals. His current biggest goal is to place first at districts and states. Han also wants to drop time to earn scholarships to swim at the collegiate level. He dreams of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic trials in 2020.

Han knows that he wants to swim at college, though he is not sure where he wants to go yet. He may want to work as coach later in life and continue his passion for swimming.

Currently, South is in preseason swimming. He already feels that the team will do an incredible job this year and the freshmen will be very welcome on the team.

“Regular season is in two weeks, which in swimming terms is very soon,” he said with a laugh. Dan Han is locked in and ready for the new season to start.