Whistling and cheers pierce the air as swimmers finish their last laps, flopping back up onto land with tired expressions. Fully dependent on speed, swimming is one of the few individual sports that also requires extreme physical exertion through moving one’s entire body through a completely unconventional element: water.
Teams with such stressful sports need strong values and support to keep the players motivated. The ‘Iolani Swim Team does just that through their good attitude, integrity, and rigorous training, despite the struggles they faced as a smaller team in such a stressful sport.
With winning the 2022, 2023, and 2024 boys’ state championships, the ‘Iolani boys had a winning streak for three years. But this season, both the ‘Iolani boys and girls placed second in the ILH to Punahou, and in the state championships on February 15, the ‘Iolani girls earned 2nd place, and the boys earned 3rd place.
Coach Ivan Batsanov, who has been coaching swim for 13 years, holds steadfast in the morals he instills in the varsity team, stating “If it’s being placed in first or second or tenth, it’s not the main thing we try to establish here. We try to establish more life skills that will be useful down the road.” For Coach Ivan, character development comes before athletic achievement.
Varsity boys team captain Finn Arrillaga ’25 echoed this statement, and says “I feel like it’s important for [players…] to understand that with every race, you’ll get something out of it, even if you don’t win.”
Swimming as a sport is extremely difficult, as a solo sport, one has nobody to blame but themselves, which is why the team is so supportive to each other.
The pressures of swimming were even seen at the state championships when a competitor broke down sobbing after she lost by half a second to ‘Iolani swimmer Olivia Wong ’27.
Coach Ivan also states, “We welcome everybody, as long as they have the proper attitude, integrity, and they can be part of the team, because although swimming is an individual sport, we show up as one team.”
Arrillaga acknowledges the difficulties of swimming, “Swimming is an interesting sport, because you can’t affect the outcome of anyone except yourself.”
With this in mind, the team remained humble. Girl’s team captain Sage Miller ’25 states “It’s not over yet.” After winning 2nd in ILH and before they went to state championships.
Miller is incredibly close with her relay team of four girls. She says, “Our relays have come together. And I think since the four of us…we have been swimming together for a while now…We’ve put together a good relay.” The relay team won second in state championships.
As shown with the miniscule amount of four swimmers on the girls’ relay team, the ‘Iolani swim team is very small. Arrillaga states “This year has been very difficult because we’ve lost a ton of our guys who really contributed to the team [because…] they graduated.”
Although the team is small, the work they put in was undeniably beneficial to their scores.
Coach Ivan states “These guys come over here at 5:45 in the morning…and that comes down to 12 to 13, sometimes 14,000 [yards] a day.”
In the end, swimming is a sport fixed upon solitude, yet at the same time a team effort, with support and care among the team remaining the greatest values that continue to push them forward.
