In July, Amie Barrow, SHS Class of 2022, became one of seven athletes to represent Gambia in the 2024 Paris Olympics. The current Brown University swimmer and former Shorewood Swim Club athlete competed in the 100 Meter Breaststroke, becoming the first woman to represent Gambia in swimming.
“It’s an honor and I’m very proud to be able to say that,” Barrow said. “At the same time, it makes me feel a little sad because it is 2024…and we are still in the position where the ‘first woman’ narrative can happen.”
Barrow, the national record holder of Gambia, was able to qualify for the Olympics through her performance at a continental championship in Angola. Although she swam other events at her qualifying meet, Barrow only competed in the 100 Meter Breaststroke in Paris.
“I just tried to think of it as a learning experience, rather than somewhere where I had to perform really well,” Barrow said. “I tried to focus on my own race and see where it would get me.”
Although Barrow viewed the competition as a learning experience, not knowing many of the other competitors offered a new challenge.
“I just tried to race the girl next to me,” Barrow said. “It is tough when you don’t know the other people, because you don’t know their race strategies, how they’ve been doing, or how they’ll do.”
However, Barrow felt more comfortable knowing that another swimmer she knew was in the same heat.
“[I] had raced her before, so I think that helped calm the nerves a little bit, because it was like any other meet,” Barrow said.
Swimming events began early on in Paris, allowing Barrow to stay for the entire competition.
“I had the two weeks after to hang out in the village and it was just so much fun…every athlete was able to go to other sports for free…[My roommate and I] would go watch track almost every day, and we also saw beach volleyball, ” Barrow said. “They had game rooms, bakeries, and cafes. It was so much fun to observe top athletes in this habitat.”
From her entire Olympic experience, Barrow says interacting with athletes of different sports was one of her favorite aspects.
“My roommate was a runner, and she had a lot of teammates there…. Seeing how people from a different sport operate in this scenario was cool,” said Barrow. “I thought swimming and track were pretty similar; they’re kind of the same sport, just in a different font.”
In addition to her memorable experience at the Olympics, Barrow credits her time at the Shorewood Swim Club and Brown for developing her relationship with the sport.
“I think coming to college…really helped me as an athlete focus on having fun, enjoying racing, and enjoying practice rather than results from a numerical perspective,” Barrow said. “I think that Shorewood has also been a big part of getting me here by teaching how fun the sport can be.”
Despite her positive experience with swimming, Barrow says how there are still some issues with the sport, especially representation. She cites accessibility, especially in smaller delegations with less funding for sports—such as Gambia—as one problem.
“I think that it’s really about outreach and encouragement,” Barrow said. “Pools, obviously, are expensive, and in Gambia specifically there isn’t a 50 meter pool, which is an Olympic sized pool. I think building that would grant more opportunities to train.”
Because she is graduating two years before the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Barrow is unsure whether or not she will try to qualify for another Olympic games.
“I always thought I would swim collegiately and then end my career here,” Barrow said. “[My graduation] would be two years before [the next Olympics] and…I’m not sure if that’s something I want to do yet.”