Haley Anderson is one of the most cheerful and easy going swimmers on the world scene, but don’t be fooled by her smile and laughter – she’s a super tough competitor. Haley has dominated the distance freestyle events in the US college world the past two seasons. At this year’s NCAA division 1 championships she won both the 1650 and the 500 freestyle.
But Haley’s biggest accomplishment in the sport came last summer when she grabbed the silver medal in the 10K marathon swim at the London Olympics. Haley was the runner up at the 2012 USA Swimming Open Water nationals in Ft. Myers where she secured a spot to race in Portugal for one of the remaining spots in the 2012 Olympic field. At that point Haley had only swam a handful of 10K but going into Portugal’s Olympic qualification she was poised to make her mark – she won the qualifier that secured her position in London.
After a successful NCAA career and completing her final semester at the University of Southern California, Haley is now setting her sights on the 2013 USA Swimming Open Water Nationals at Lake Castaic – just north of Los Angeles.
In this interview Haley talks about her recent NCAA success, life after London and shares some advice for anyone looking to get into open water swimming.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6NmezIyABI&w=640&h=360]