Team Flippy smiles all the way to the Olympics

Mariselle Stofberg For Phillip Seidler, the water has always been the place he feels most alive. Swimming is not just a hobby. It is built into his DNA and is the thing that drives him every day. Seidler recently qualified for the 2021 Olympics at the Olympic Qualifier in Portugal. “I prepared for eight years for this moment. Eight years of hard training, about 16 kilometres a day, three times a week in the gym have finally paid off,” he said. “It feels unreal that I have qualified. I worked my entire life, sacrificed everything for eight years to achieve my biggest goal in my life. Now preparations for the Olympics are both mental and physical. Mentally, I am extraordinarily strong already having to go through a qualifier event. Physically, we are training extremely hard, working on my end speed and working on a few weaknesses of mine,” he said. Seidler’s swimming journey started at the age of five. “There were two reasons why I started swimming. The first was because at the age of four I could already surf before I could swim. Growing up at the coast, it is important to know how to swim and practice water safety in general. The second reason was at the age of five, I broke my arm.”Who would have thought that breaking your arm could have this impact on your future?“It was the turning point for my parents to take me for swimming lessons because my parents believed that swimming was the best rehab I could do for my broken arm. After two weeks of learning how to swim with a broken arm, June Owen Smith, who was a legendary coach at the Swakopmund Swimming Club, entered me into my first swimming competition.” Falling in love with swimmingAfter racing for the first time, Seidler fell in love with swimming and hasn’t stopped since. “I was always a big dreamer with an even bigger heart and always knew that I would take up swimming as a career.”He was born on 25 March 1998 in Windhoek and was raised in Swakopmund. After attending Namib Primary School from grade one to seven, he attended Namib High School. “I had an amazing childhood growing up in Swakopmund. I had lots of friends and we all went surfing, played soccer and swam. I swam during the week, in the afternoons, after school and on the weekends and I surfed with my older friends. Doing sports in general makes me super happy, because I really am a fitness freak.”There are many moments in his swimming career that Seidler cherishes. “The most memorable achievements were breaking my first ever Namibian record at age 12 in the 400-metre freestyle event. Winning the first time the Jetty Mile at the age of 14 and setting up a new record. Swimming Professional Open Water World Cups and World Championship,” he said. “What I love about swimming is the tremendous fitness you get from it and the competitions I get to compete in. Swimming gave me a lot of discipline, determination, goal-setting skills and mental strength.”Seidler’s mother is his coach, and this mother-son duo has been making waves in the swimming industry. “I have great respect for her because she sacrificed eight years of her life to train me and always believed in me and my goals. It means the world for me to have her with me during the journey. Without her, I would not have made it to the Olympics,” he said. He also added that they always try to maintain the balance and differentiation between mother and coach whenever they are training. “In the pool, we have a coach and swimmer relationship where I call her by her first name and out of the pool, she is my mom. I am a homegrown athlete and have been training on Namibian soil, or rather in Namibian waters, all my life.”Sacrifices On his Olympic journey, Seidler has had to make a lot of sacrifices, which include giving up partying and enjoying time with friends, because often his training schedule would make this impossible. “What motivated me through all this was that I had a goal and vision to one day qualify for the Olympics. That drove me through the tough times.”During the little free time he has, Seidler enjoys surfing, because it brings him joy and helps build some extra fitness. Just like any athlete, he has rituals before a meet. “I have a long list of pre-competition rituals, but some of them include eating ProNutro before my race, listening to fast music and stretching.”Seidler added that the most important essentials every swimmer should have in their bag for a competition include a towel, costume, goggles, your swimming cap and some liquids to drink for hydration.Not only has the water given him joy and peace, but somewhere in between the training and races, he even managed to find love. “A crazy thing that happened to me a few years back was when I met a beautiful girl about 10 minutes before a 10-kilometre race and after we both raced, she was my girlfriend and ever since we are still together through thick and thin. Swimming many open water races together is always a special moment for us two,” he said. His message to the youth is to set goals for your life and to stay motivated on your journey. “Always work hard, believe in yourself and if people are not laughing at your dreams, then your dreams are not big enough.”

Team Flippy smiles all the way to the Olympics

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Republikein 2025-05-01

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Team Flippy smiles all the way to the Olympics

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