When MARK SZARANEK left school he took a year out to focus on training to become a better swimmer before furthering his studies. He was based in Florida, training with the renowned Florida Gators team at the University of Florida, which paid off with a ticket to the Gold Coast in 2018.

Mark is now back on home soil with the University of Stirling swim team and is looking to add to his impressive formative years.

Mark ccompeted at the World FINA Championships in 2017, a sign of his progression. At the 2017 British Championships he came home with two Silver medals and in the NCAA Championships in America he swam to a Gold and a Bronze in short course events. It was the year before, in Minneapolis at the 2016 US Open Championships where Szanarek claimed his first Gold medal, in the 400m Individual Medley race.

2013 saw his debut in international representation on GBR squads at both the European and World Junior Championships. Mark is hungry for more ahead of 2018, quoting his favourite expression: "The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work." 

#ILearnedtoSwim with Mark Szanarek

"My first swimming lessons were in Glenrothes Swimmign Pool and my first club was Glenrothes Swimming Club. I joined because I enjoyed the swimming lessons so much. Both of my parents swam when they were younger and still do now from time to time so I think it was inevitable that I also ended up swimming.

"My earliest memory is from my Glenrothes Swimming Club days when I used to race in a silver or gold swimming cap and a brief at every meet.  think the earliest memory my parents have for my love of the water is a story they have told me a few times but I don't actually remember myself; while on a family holiday both my brother and I jumped into a swimming pool one evening while being fully dressed in nice dinner clothes. Neither of us could swim at the time and my dad had no choice but to jump straight in the pool after us to save us. I'm not sure that my parents would have found it funny at the time but now looking back on it we all have a laugh about it."

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