LA County Venice Beach Junior Lifeguard To Represent USA At DHL IRSC

Emma Sainsbury-Carter, a 16 year old Junior at Marymount High School and Venice Beach Junior Lifeguard in Los Angeles, has just been named to Team USA for the United States Life Saving Association Under 19 division (USLA U19). Qualifiers represent an elite group of surf rescue athletes comprised of 16-18 year old members from all over the United States. The team, of which there are eight young women and seven young men, will compete against athletes from Australia, Great Britain, South Africa, Canada, France and Japan over a grueling four day period at New Zealand’s International Surf Rescue Challenge, sponsored by DHL. Sainsbury-Carter notes:

“I am humbled by this opportunity and so grateful to my coaches. I get to compete against the best of the best in the ocean and pool; I am proud to count myself among this select group to represent the United States. I am even more proud to bring attention to a sport that focuses on lifesaving and whose athletes are among some of the strongest, bravest, and selfless people I have ever met.”

A pool and open-water veteran athlete, Sainsbury-Carter has been competing since the age of nine. She swims distance events at the Junior Olympic level in the pool and swims for Marymount High School’s Varsity Team. At CSLSA 2017, the California state surf lifesaving championship held this past July in Coronado, she earned both a gold and silver medal in the rescue relay race and board rescue respectively; most recently, at the USLA Nationals held in Daytona Beach, Florida on August 9th, she earned a silver medal in the rescue relay.

Sainsbury-Carter has been training with the USLA High Performance Squad for two years under the guidance of Coach Casey Graham and Team Manager Gus Avila. In addition to this training, she works out daily with Coach Peter Fishler of West Side Aquatics in Pacific Palisades and spends every summer at Venice Beach with the Los Angeles County Junior Lifeguards where she hones her surf rescue skills and helps mentor new members each summer.

For more information go to usla.org

Press Release courtesy of USLA.