Grace Ariola
Grace Ariola is an American swimmer from Bloomington, Illinois. She competes for Waves Bloomington/Normal YMCA.
High School
Grace ranked as Swimswam’s #17 recruit of the class of 2018. Even though she wouldn’t go on to graduate until a full year later, Ariola committed to swim for the Texas Longhorns in May of 2017. She competed at the 2016 Olympic Trials in the 50m and 100m free and 100m and 200m back, her highest finish coming in the 100m back where she placed 9th in semi finals, just missing the final heat. At the 2017 Phillips 66 Summer Nationals, Grace placed 8th in the 50m free (25.03), 6th in the 50m back (28.43), 11th in the 100m back (1:00.66), and won the 18-under final of the 100m free (55.05).
International
2015 World Junior Championships
Grace was a member of the national junior team beginning in 2015 when she traveled with team USA to Singapore for the 2015 World Junior Championships, where she swam the 100m and 200m backstroke. In the 100m back she made it to her first international final, ultimately ending up 8th place with a personal best of 1:01.10. In the 200m back she placed 17th (2:15.54), missing out on the finals. She also swam the prelims of the 4x100m medley relay, which went on to place 4th in finals.
2016 Junior Pan Pacific Championships
In 2016, Grace again made the junior national team, and traveled with team USA to Maui for the Junior Pan Pacific Championships. She competed in the 100m back (9th, 1:01.39), 100m free (5th, 55.93), 200m back (20th, 2:19.63), and 50m free (20th, 26.52). She also led off team USA’s 4x100m free relay (55.81) which went on to win gold.
2017 World Junior Championships
With her performances at the 2017 summer nationals, Grace once again qualified for team USA’s junior roster, this time traveling to Indianapolis to defend the Nat. Given her experience with the junior national team, Grace was voted as 1 of 5 team captains for USA. She had her busiest international schedule to date, swimming a myriad of relays and individual events for the stars and stripes. Over the course of the week she earned a bronze individually in the 50m back (28.11) as well as 3 relay silvers in the 4x100m free relay, mixed 4x100m free relay, and mixed 4x100m medley relay. She also placed 6th in the 100m backstroke (1:00.58) and 7th in the 100m freestyle (55.46).
