KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The USA Swimming Olympic Trials begin this weekend and a few swimmers from the University of Tennessee look to make team USA.
Erika Connolly, formally known as Erika Brown, qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics by claiming a silver medal in the preceding Olympic Trials.
She went on to claim two medals. Since then it hasn’t been an easy path, but she wants to put on the red, white and blue one more time. Connolly has had her eyes set on the Olympic stage since she was young.
“My parents taught me to dream big," she said. "I remember writing out my goal is to make an Olympic team and thinking about that every day when I go to practice. To be able to accomplish that is an amazing feeling. And representing my country is so much better, it’s bigger than just me.”
In the 2020 Olympics, she won a silver medal in the 4x100 medley and a bronze medal in the 4x100 freestyle. The following summer she competed in the World Championships and won five medals, including two gold, in relay races.
She was at the height of her career but that winter came the lowest point.
“I herniated a disk in my back," she said. "I’d never been injured to that degree. There were weeks when I could barely get up and move. That was a new challenge I hadn’t experienced before.”
It is a challenge she took on for about six months last year. The competitor refused to let that be the end of her career.
“I’ve had to relearn things that came very naturally to me in the water," she said. "I’m just now starting to feel what I want to feel in the water. “
Her confidence is coming just in time for the Olympic trial.
Connolly said this will be her last hurrah at trying to make the Olympics. She wants to give everything she can for her country.
”If I get to the point where I make the team, it will mean more because I’ve had to work through that, she said. "And I can kind of sign off with my best.”
Whatever happens at the Olympic Trials, she feels good about what she gained from overcoming that injury. She will try and make the team in the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle.