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Sierra Schmidt: USA Swimming’s New Dancing Queen

2014 has been a big year for American teenager Sierra Schmidt. She’s changed clubs and is now training with the incredible distance group at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club.  She also progressed through Junior Nationals, Nationals, and the Junior Pan Pacs: the latter of which saw her win the Swimmer of the Meet award after taking titles in the women’s 800 free and 1500 freestyles.

Not only have swim fans taken notice of her big success, but they’ve taken notice of her pre-race ritual. Specifically, Sierra Schmidt spends a good 5 minutes before each race getting funky behind the blocks. She puts her music on, closes her eyes, and seems to melt away into her own world before her races.

Check out the photo vault below to see Tim Binning’s view of just one such of those dance-offs.
_Schmidt_Sierra 16 Schmidt Sierra Schmidt Una NBAC-TBX_2207- (1) _Schmidt_Sierra 16 Schmidt Sierra Schmidt Una NBAC-TBX_2198- _Schmidt_Sierra 16 Schmidt Sierra Schmidt Una NBAC-TBX_2186- _Schmidt_Sierra 16 Schmidt Sierra Schmidt Una NBAC-TBX_2184- _Schmidt_Sierra 16 Schmidt Sierra Schmidt Una NBAC-TBX_2180-

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ERVINFORTHEWIN
10 years ago

Highly effective for anything u want to do in life ; releases mind tensions , opens up new energies ; getting ready totally focused . What else would u have to feel before racing other than ” I am intuned ” .

Evilwatersprite
10 years ago

I love it. From a spectator perspective, starting block dancing is far more entertaining than chest slapping.

Attention Mike Bottom: Next time UM does the water carnival, starting block dancing needs to be added as a scoring event.

klorn8d
10 years ago

She’s awesome. Is she going into her Junior or senior year of high school?

Gavin
Reply to  klorn8d
9 years ago

sophmore i think graduates 2017

anon
10 years ago

Michael Phelps even noticed! He posted an instagram video a while ago of her dancing!

Danjohnrob
10 years ago

Uh oh! I see a dance-off in the future between Sierra and Missy like in that Michael Jackson video for the song “Who’s Bad”! 😉

bobo gigi
10 years ago

Very funny!
As long as it’s not Bieber in her ears. 🙂

ecb
10 years ago

At Jr. Pan PACs prior to the girls 50 free she taught the female sprinters her moves and how to loosen up. They loved it!! Go Sierra!

Ferb
10 years ago

I love it. She does what she needs to do to relax and focus, without worrying about what anyone else thinks.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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